


Xros Music Evangelion

by calumTraveler



Series: XWAU02 Multiverse [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: Gen, Giant Robots, Graphic warning is for the Angel battles, Humor, Inspired by Music, It's Evangelion with Guardian's Soundtrack, Music, Soundtrack Swap, but come on that's P'much a given, mix tape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-02-17 22:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 114,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2325494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calumTraveler/pseuds/calumTraveler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm waiting on someone to realize that both Peter Quill and Shinji both rock the mom mix tape and then switch out the playlist for Shinji." --TheFourthman (Sufficient Velocity Forums)</p><p>Challenge Accepted...and Bravely Finished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Come and Get Your Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinji Ikari has but one memento of his Mother's when he arrives in Tokyo-3 to fight the Angels.
> 
> Cue Awesome! Mix, Vol.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> STORY SET UP.
> 
> Greetings! C.T. here!   
> As stated above, the general premise here is that Shinji Ikari has Peter Quill's mix-tape of music instead of what he had originally. How will that change things?
> 
> Read on, brave souls. Read on...

Three year old Shinji Ikari sat outside in the loby of a certain hospital room. The boy was really too young to process what was going on around him. Terms being thrown about such as "Contact Experiment" and "Deadly repercussions."  
  
Instead, he sat in a chair, a small cassette tape Walkman player in hand, and bright blue headphones over his ears, listening to the mix-tape that his mother had given him just before she'd gone in to perform some 'tests.' At this age, he couldn't quite understand the true meaning [of the words to the song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdudwFgSjgo), and it would likely be some time before he did.  
  
  
It was then that his father stepped out of the room, a hollow look on his face like such that Shinji had never seen before....and likely never would, given his current fixation on staring at his shoes- laces lovingly tied up into giant bunny ears by his mother that very morning.  
  
Gendo Ikari put on a solid look to his face. He had to be brave. He couldn't let the kid see him be afraid...  
  
"Shinji," He voiced, hopefully loud enough to speak over the music. But it wasn't. For a moment, Gendo felt his throat choke up, and then he walked over to his son, kneeling down and reaching out to press the stop button on the walkman. "Shinji," he repeated, getting the boy's attention as the song stopped.  
  
"What?" Shinji asked, looking up with that child like innocence... "Is mommy alright?"  
  
God, and all the Angels beneath him, be damned- Gendo's heart clenched up. His mask nearly broke. So much love in that kid's heart, so much concern...  
  
And here he was about to shatter them all.  
  
"Your...mother would like to speak to you," He had to force it out- clinically cold. Devoid of emotion. Had to. If he didn't he would break down and...  
  
"'Kay..." And with that, Gendo led his son in to see his mother...Yui Ikari...for the final time.  
  
And it wasn't just that the boy's mother was in there- Yui was his wife, damn it all! How could she have been so reckless to throw herself into the Evangelion like that?? She knew the risks and now...!  
  
"Hey, Shinji-kun...." Yui smiled at the boy as he entered the room. She looked horrible. Head half-bandaged up in formerly white pieces of cloth that were stained orange, and slowly turning red. At Shinji's angle, he couldn't see it, but her legs were gone completely. "C'mmere for a second, 'kay...?"  
  
"'Kay," Shinji stepped up to the bed, and then Yui smiled at him as she motioned to Fuyutsuki, and he quickly handed her a small wrapped present.  
  
"Shinji-kun, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to give you this on your birthday like I planed...." Yui handed him the present... "I've...got to go away on a trip. For a very long time."  
  
"To where?" Shinji asked.  
  
"I've got to..." She giggled in a way that rang hollow to Gendo, "have a few words with a Spirit in the Sky." She tapped at the box. "Open it for me, please? I want to see your smile before I go..."  
  
"Okay..." And the boy opened the packaging- the small box fell away to reveal a small silver key, something that looked ornamental but Gendo knew it held so much more significance. Why would Yui--?? "What is it...?"  
  
"It's a necklace," Yui said, moving her hand to point at the chain that the key was attached to. "Whenever things get tough...tougher than you'd ever thought possible...that key will open the way for you to get past it. So keep it close, okay?"  
  
Shinji nodded, and took the key-turned-necklace out of the box. Yui smiled, observing him with one visible eye as he put it on. "The chain's a bit big..." Shinji said.  
  
"Of course it is," Yui smiled, "you'll grow with it. I know you'll be so dashing with it in a few years...I can't wait to see you then." Gendo's heart tore at him. The boy had no clue what she meant and by the time he figured it out...  
  
"Do you really have to leave?" Shinji asked, frowning in that sad way that only children could pull off.  
  
"I do..." she nodded, "but I'm....I'll always be with you, Shinji-kun." She eyed the headphones around his neck, and she said, "Whenever you listen to that tape, I'll be there. So take care of it well, okay, Shinji-kun?"  
  
"Okay, I will," he nodded.  
  
"Now can you smile for me, Shinji?"  
  
He smiled.  
  
"Thank you, Shinji."  
  
And then Yui Ikari's eye closed, and her breath left her.  
  
"Mommy...?" Shinji blinked- and somewhere in that young, innocent mind of his, he understood what had happened. Tears began to well up in his eyes....  
  
Gendo allowed himself to break just that once as he swept his son up into a mighty hug.  


* * *

 

  
 **XROS MUSIC EVANGELION.**

**_"Everything Under the Sun"_ **

 

* * *

  
  
**THIRTEEN YEARS LATER...**  
  
 __The service you are trying to use is currently out of servi--*_ TAh _- **RIING!*_**_

  
The payphone was curtly put back up before it's out-of-service message could even play all the way through.  
  
"Arrra....so much for that," Shinji Ikari (Age Sixteen) turned away and began walking down the empty streets of Tokyo-3.  
  
Sirens blared distantly, and the wind skimmed through the void, carrying the sound past the teen's ears in a way that made him shrug his brown-leather jacket on tighter. Presently, he reached into his pants pockets- the worn jeans that had seen better days, and pulled out a set of folding headphones. With a slight twist of his messily tied shoes as he walked, he put the headphones over his ears and then reached into the other pocket side, on his jacket this time, with the cord from the headphones.  
  
There was a faint click, and then a motion of his hands a moment later caused a louder 'clack' sound of a large button being pressed.  
  
[Then the music began to play. ](http://youtu.be/NwKHrBQjzbE)  
  
With a sway of his hips, Shinji Ikari began to dance down the street.  
  
 __Hee~eeell! (Heee~eeell) What's the mater with your head? (Yeah)__  
  
As he skipped down the street, he tore out a post card from his pocket, and began rolling it up into a mock microphone- obscuring the simple text "Come to Tokyo-3."  
  
 __Hee~eeell! (Heee~eeell) What's the matter with your mind and your sign and-a-ooh-ohh__  
  
And as Shinji sang, he danced past a ghostly image of a girl with blue hair, and red eyes, wearing some kind of strange, green colored skin-hugging suit...  
  
And he completely ignored her.  
  
 __Hee~eeell! (Heee~eeell) Nothin's a matter with your head, baby, find it. Come on and Find it.__  
  
The girl disappeared in a blip of static.  
  
 __He~eell... with it, baby,__  
  
Shinji continued to even ignore the various pieces of litter in the street, instead kicking them away with time to the music.  
  
 __'Cause you're fine and your mine...and you look so diviiiiineee~__  
  
One such random piece of litter was a small tub of powdered orange juice of a certain tangy brand, being straight in Shinji's path. KICK! It went soaring high into the air- tumbling end over end higher and higher than seemingly possible- over the edges of the nearest rooftops...  
  
 __Come and Get your Love!__  
  
We could now see why the city was empty- a giant monster of some vague humanoid design with rather beak-y appendages.  
  
 __Come and Get your Love!__  
  
The tub came soaring back down towards the ground- landing in a puddle with a splash, only to be crushed a second later by a car tire squealing to a halt ontop of it.  
  
The driver, Misato Katsuragi, just stared out as the child she'd been sent to retrieve just continued to dance down the street, completely unaware of the car now blocking his path.  
  
 __Come and Get your Love!__  
  
Shinji, however, did quickly notice upon finding that his foot had met an obstacle that it couldn't clear away.  
  
And with a confused look on his face, he reached into his jacket pocket and moved for the pause button, ending the song on one final _Come and Get your Love!_  
  
Misato regained her composure, and rolled down the driver's side window, "Uh...are you Shinji Ikari, by any chance?"  
  
"Yup, that's me," the teen nodded, taking off his headphones as he moved over to the rather bright red sports car's passenger side. "What? No 'come with me if you want to live'?" He asked after a full few seconds of awkward silence that were especially noticeable once he was actually in the car. "Fiiine," He let out a slight groan, which seemed forced given the smirk on his face. "Take me to your leader!"  
  
Dancing....that had not been on Misato's briefing, and neither had the snark, for that matter.  
  
She focused on the drive instead.  


* * *

  
__Eagle Sixteen to Ground, we are engaging the enemy.__ Eagle Sixteen's squad had become known as "Nova Squad" through their rigorous training of flying through dangerous situations and taking risks that most others wouldn't, and this certainly counted.  
  
The fighter jets flew over the city of Tokyo-3, aiming for a pass at the monster that had already slain the last wave of attackers with ease.

* * *

  
"Damn it, I hope those things aren't nuclear..." Misato grumbled, glancing over at her passenger as those jets flew over head.  
  
Shinji had completely ignored the briefing folder she'd handed him, and instead was listening to music yet again, singing along quietly to the music that was playing. ["oooh, child...](http://youtu.be/bAm3ZwtX0Yc)things are going to get easier...."  
  
At least in the car he couldn't dance.

* * *

  
They all knew this was a suicide run- but this monster, whatever it's beaky faced name was, marched through Tokyo-3 towards the heart of the city, where it was suspected the last hope Humanity had lay in wait- and though the UN had given orders for it not to be launched yet, it's defense was preferable to the destruction of everything.  
  
Even if that meant the lives of a few fighter jets.  
  
None of this meant anything to the Angel who simply turned around and swatted them out of the skies like gnats.  
  
Unfortunately for the Angel, the "Nova Squad" Was known for one other thing.  
  
 _ **KERTHUUUMP!!**_  
  
...Their jets were powered by N2 Reactors, and were completely remotely operated due to that simple fact.  
  
The Angel's upper body exploded with the blinding white light of a Super Nova as it's arms hit the fighter jets- some exploding then and there, while others dove in for a more direct attack against it's body.  


* * *

  
  
The flashes of light shone over and through the gaps of the buildings as Misato drove towards the nearest Geofront entrance.  
  
"Oh, sure, like those are going to do any good," Misato grumbled.  
  
"Things'll be briiighterrr...." Shinji continued to sing.  


* * *

  
One of the surviving jets held back at a distance, waiting for the light show to end...  
  
 __This is Eagle Twenty.... Reporting in that....target....__ the smoke cleared- revealing that a massive portion of the Angel's torso had been exploded away, but was already begining to grow back. __Has Not, I repeat **has NOT** been eliminated.__

* * *

  
  
They reached what appeared to be a giant elevator for a car inside a mundane looking parking garage.  
  
Well, 'appeared' is a loose term, considering that it actually was one. Once they'd parked, the car suddenly began descending rapidly.  
  
"Can you stop singing for a moment and actually read the briefing now?" Misato asked, reaching for the headphones to pry them off of Shinji's ears.  
  
Surprisingly, his reflexes were faster than she expected, and he slapped her hand away with ease, even while sending a slightly angry glance her way.  
  
"Alright alright, I get it," She grumbled, "No touching the headphones."  
  
"Or the Walkman." Shinji pulled his headphones off of his own free will, though he hadn't stopped the song from playing, leaving it to play out faintly from the speakers into the cabin.  
  
"Or the-" Misato sighed, "got it. Don't touch your music stuff."  
  
"So you want me to read all of this stuff then," Shinji asked, opening up the folder and looking through it. "Isn't there a cliff notes version?"  
  
"I could give you one, but everything you need to know is in there," Misato replied. "And by the way, I never introduced myself yet. I'm--"  
  
"Lieutenant Colonel Misato Katsuragi," Shinji read off of the first page of the folder. "Says here you're my handler... Like a spy handler?" He then asked, looking rather serious, "If I become a spy, you've got to promise not to burn me and dump be off in Miami."  
  
Misato raised an eyebrow, had he really just said that? "Something like that," She said as she watched the lights pass upwards while they descended downwards. "I'm basically the self-appointed kid-wrangler. I make sure every one of you under my watch is well adjusted and happy with life in Tokyo-3, well...as well adjusted and happy as you can be in this crapsack world."  
  
"So there's some other motivation for my dad calling me back then?" Shinji turned the page and made an "Ah" sound. "Giant Robot Pilots. Say no more."  
  
"You sound strangely comfortable with the idea of piloting a giant robot," Misato remarked.  
  
"My aunt and uncle had a lot of old shows recorded on VHS pre-impact," Shinji said, "me and my cousin watched them all the time growing up. Those tapes, plus the songs my mom left me, pretty much made up my childhood." Shinji hit the stop button on his Walkman with practiced ease before the next song could start.  
  
"I was told you were going to be some shy kid waiting at the bus stop," Misato noted. "And then you weren't there."  
  
"Ah, yeah, sorry about that," Shinji replied, eyes scanning down the pages rapidly, taking in the info that was there. "I wanted to call ahead to let dad know I was here, but there weren't any payphones near the station, and then the first one I found didn't even work so..." he shrugged, "I figured I'd just walk." He then saw a certain line, "So this says I'm supposed to be the 'Third Child'? If you've got two other pilots why call me in?"  
  
"The Second is at our sister-base with Unit-02 in Germany," Misato explained. "And The First...well, you'll be meeting her shortly."  
  
"Second, got it," Shinji nodded. "What about the first exactly?"  
  
The Car reached the bottom of the shaft- and begun being pulled forwards along a track with a sudden jerk that gave Misato the time to try to figure out what was need-to-know information.  
  
"To say that Unit-00 has anger issues would be putting it mildly. Ritsuko thinks that the AI that got installed has a loose zero and one set somewhere. We tried synchronizing it and the First once already, to see if we could maybe direct that anger at the Angel..." Misato shook her head. "It didn't end well. Honestly, we're amazed Rei's still awake after that thrashing, let alone walking..."  
  
There was a pause, an expected "What?" of surprise.  
  
Instead?  
  
"Makes sense," Shinji said, "I can't imagine someone would like being a giant robot all that much." He then jokingly said, "Hey, maybe if I play it some of my music, it'll calm down?"  
  
Misato's eye twitched subtly as she tried to understand this. "What gives you the idea that a giant robot would like music?"  
  
"Who wouldn't?" Shinji replied earnestly. "Just because you're a thousand feet tall and have ears made out of metal doesn't mean you can't enjoy a few cool songs every now and again."  


* * *

  
Their path took them from the garage through the locker rooms.  
  
"Normally, you'd suit up here in a Plug Suit, but we don't have one ready for you yet- since we need physical measurements to make sure it works right," Misato explained. "So put anything in here that you don't want getting soaked and ruined, for now at least."  
  
"That oxygenated liquid the briefing mentioned, right?" Shinji nodded- making sure to stow away his walkman and headphones, as well as his jacket and shoes, in the locker that was simply labled "3RD." He hesitated on his pants, and then shrugged, saying, "They're ruined enough as it is. Why not let them die with honor?"  
  
That finished, they continued up through the hallway with a sign reading "EVA DOCKS."  
  
As they emerged up into a massive room, cross crossed with walkways, Shinji paused for a moment as he took in the sight before him.  
  
There were three giant cylinders that went from the railing height down all the way to the floor- at least a skyscraper in height beneath them! Inside two of the cylinders were two giant Robots, one was a cyclops with a scratched up white and orange paint-job. ("Unit-00," Misato helpfully informed); and the other was a horned behemoth of purple and green.  
  
"And that's what you'll be piloting," Misato said, "Evangelion Unit-01."  
  
As if on command- the robot's vibrant green eyes flared open and turned dramatically towards Shinji.  
  
The motion was enough to send technicians all over into a startled panic- some people in an observation deck were hurriedly making sure to record whatever data was being put through. Even Misato had jumped and let out a squeak of surprise at the event.  
  
Shinji just met its gaze, almost as if feeling a distant connection to that robot in some way he couldn't quite place.  
  
Then, Unit-01's eyes closed, and it seemed to settle down in content.  
  
"Oh god, that thing creeps me out sometimes," Misato fought to catch her breath.  
  
"I get the feeling it's just lonely," Shinji replied.  
  
"With Mr. Orange-creamsicle over there for company?" Said a woman's voice from across the railing- "I can believe that."  
  
Misato smiled as the owner of the voice stepped out into view, "Shinji, this is Doctor Ritsuko Akagi. She works on the Eva tech and the MAGI computer systems that NERV runs on. Ritsuko, meet Shinji Ikari, our new Pilot."  
  
"Pleasure to meet you, Third," the bottle-blond haired woman said, offering her hand to Shinji. "Hopefully Misato's driving didn't scare you too much."  
  
"Hey! I'm a wonderful driver, thank you very much!" Misato protested.  
  
Shinji just said a simple "Nice to meet you," in return as he shook her hand.  
  
"So then," Ritsuko smiled, "are you ready to get in the giant robot and kick some Angelic Ass?"  
  
"About as ready as I'll ever be, I think," Shinji replied, looking at Unit-01 out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"Well, that's good and all, but you can't go fighting without an Interface Headset," Ritsuko then yelled out across the catwalk. "AYANAMI! GET OVER HERE!"  
  
There was a motion of blue hair across the way- too far for Shinji to see who it was.  
  
"I read about that, I think the briefing called them A2 connectors or something?" Shinji asked for confirmation.  
  
"Some of my staff informally calls them A10's," Ritsuko frowned, "Never heard of an "A2" Before though..." She waved it off, "Probably a typo. Someone was in a rush writing it, I'd guess. I'll take a look at it later."  
  
The room containing the Evangelion Robots was large- the walkway connecting the two Evangelions and the third, empty canister was at least a city block wide. Whoever Ritsuko had called over seemed to be hobbling over with a crutch under the left arm at an impressive speed.  
  
"So the Briefing didn't mention what it is we're fighting, did it?" Ritsuko began fact checking.  
  
"It left it at 'giant monsters'," Shinji said.

"Ah, good. So at least they didn't screw that much up." Ritsuko explained, "The enemy we face are called Angels- and they're the cause behind Second Impact."  
  
"Really?" Shinji asked.  
  
"The First Angel arrived on earth a long time before anything lived here and seeded life here," Ritsuko explained. "Then, around the time of the Dinosaurs, there was an event the world knows as the First Impact. I personally think it might have been a colonization attempt, but nobody's accepted that theory so far..." her hands clenched into fists, "even though there's plenty of evidence about the nature of the Geofront's interior matching the other one--!"  
  
"Ahhem, Ritsuko?" Misato coughed. "You're meandering again."  
  
"Right, right, sorry," The Doctor apologized, shaking her head. "So, about twenty or so years ago, we discovered in Antarctica a giant white spheroid structure- a matching twin to this very base that we're in now."  
  
"We're what?" Shinji replied, blinking in surprise.  
  
"Ah, That'll have to wait until after we save the world," Ritsuko chided him. "Anyways- inside that place, scientists discovered the Second Angel- but they called the First becaue they didn't know about the older one- stuck in hibernation. The idiots there mismanaged the entire thing though, accidentally woke it up, and damn was it mad." She then said rather loudly in the direction of a group of technicians, "Which is Why I say First Impact was a Colonization attempt!" Those technicians just groaned, and tried to ignore her as they focused on their work, whatever it was.  "Anyways, the official cover story was that the event that followed was the "Second Impact", after the first one that exterminated the Dinosaurs. Nobody had any clue how right of a term it actually was, though. We now know for sure that that place in Antarctica was the same object that impacted and killed the Dinosaurs out!"  
  
"You now know," Misato rolled her eyes slightly. "Everyone else here with a degree thinks you're a conspiracy nut, Ritz."  
  
"Hey, it all fits, they just can't see--" Ritsuko cut herself off, having done this particular samba already, _"Annnyways,_ this brings us to the present. What they called the First Angel then split up into many, many different orbs of DNA- which scattered across the globe during the Second Impact. It's taken those decades for the first of those eggs to mature and hatch into what everyone can agree on as the Third Angel- Code Named "Sachiel"- but in the mean time, we prepared for this." She turned backwards to motion wildly towards the Evangelions- "The Evangelion Project was launched, and NERV founded! Now we can fight back...!" She then added quietly, "Hopefully."  
  
"You're not instilling a lot of confidence in me here, Doc'," Shinji replied.  
  
"Well... I'm just trying to set the mood here," Ritsuko said. "If the Third Angel- or any Angel for that matter- succeeds in reaching the core of the Geofront, it would initiate an event we're preemptively dubbing Third Impact; because theme naming, why not?- that would finish the job Second Impact didn't do."  
  
"So basically, pilot the giant robot, kill the Angel, save the world, and be home in time for dinner," Shinji nodded. "Got it." He then looked over as the girl- for it was a girl, maybe at least a year or two younger than him- with blue hair finally made it over to them, clutching what looked to be a white headband with...were those cat ears?...in her right hand. "Hello," He nodded in her direction.  
  
Then he did a double take as he caught a glimpse of her eyes. 'Red??' The girl seemed to be looking him over curiously-  
  
"Ah, just on time, Ayanami," Ritsuko motioned for the girl to hand over the head band, which she did. "Pilot Ikari, meet Pilot Ayanami. Ayanami, Ikari." Ritsuko then fastened the Interface band over Shinji's head. "I'm sure you two will have plenty of time to get to know each other after the world has been saved from another colonization attempt." Nobody wanted to argue with her this time.  
  
"Rei," Misato said then clarifying, even though the name was being directed at the girl, "why aren't you in bed?"  
  
"Doctor Akari said I could--" "A-Ka- _Gi._ " "--be here in case something went wrong with the synchronization attempt," The girl said in a matter of fact tone, continuing on uninterrupted even despite the mis-pronounced name and the correction that had been shoved in just after it. In fact, she seemed strangely okay despite the fact that her lower left leg was wrapped up in what appeared to be a cast, and her upper left arm, even, was heavily covered in bandages.  
  
"Really now," Misato sent Ritsuko a strange look.  
  
"Pilot Ikari," Rei then turned her attention to Shinji, a faint look of appraisal on her face as she spoke. "Good luck against The Third Angel."  
  
"Thanks," Shinji replied, wincing even as Ritsuko continued to meddle with the connectors on his head. "I get the feeling I'm going to need it."  


* * *

  
The metal seat of the Entry Plug was strangely warm through his clothes, even as the entry door was sealed shut, leaving Shinji in darkness.  
  
_"Shinji, we're setting the Entry Plug into Unit-01."_ Misato's voice echoed out over the intercom. _"You're going to feel a jerk, and then a slight spinning sensation, don't worry, it's normal."_  
  
"Alright," Shinji nodded- wondering if they could see him at all in the darkened metal chamber.  
  
And then he felt the sudden jerk and then---  
  
"YOU CALL THIS _**'SLIGHT'!?"**_ Shinji yelped out as the entire Entry Plug felt like it was spinning end over end like a giant record on a single axis into position, which it wasn't, in reality.  
  
Instead, there was a mechanical screw attached to the bottom of the plug that was screwing the giant capsule into the base of the neck of Unit-01.  
  
\--There were some faint murmurs over the radio, which vaguely sounded like, "Never seen that strong of a reaction before."  
  
_"Er, yeah, that's perfectly normal. We didn't want you to freak out."_ Dr. Akagi's lie was so bold faced that it was practically underlined with italics at the same time.  
  
Shinji took a deep breath, and exhaled. The air was starting to feel a bit stale in there...  
  
_"We're starting the LCL pump now,"_ Misato said, _"Remember to breath normally."_  
  
Rei then helpfully added, _"I'm told the Taste of Blood is normal. Try not to gag."_  
  
"Wait- what?" Shinji glanced around in surprise as a glowing orange liquid began to fill up the metal chamber rather quickly now- oh wow, it was already getting up to his knees and past up to his hips now and--- "WOOOOAAAH! THAT IS COLD!"  
  
Shinji quickly tried to work past the panic that was bubbling up about just as quickly as the LCL levels in the Entry Plug. So...he did the only thing he could do....  
  
He closed his eyes and started singing, "There ain't no mountain high enough...ain't no valley low enough..."  
  
After a few moments, the blackness of his vision seemed to turn red with the blood in his eyelids.  
  
_"Shinji, you can open your eyes now."_ Dr. Akagi said.  
  
And so he did.  
  
He quickly realized that he hadn't even noticed when the LCL had entered his mouth, or forced its way down his lungs...nor when had the entire chamber suddenly become filled with glowing holographic screens of data readouts?  
  
_"Shinji, if you're ready, we're going to attempt a synchronization with Unit-01,"_ Misato said.  
  
"Alright," Shinji spoke normally- though there was a faint warbling echo to his voice that he picked up on right away. Was this what it was like to talk under water?  
  
_"Opening connection pathways....beginning synchronization in three...two..."_ And then Dr. Akagi's voice dropped out as Shinji's vision of the entry plug suddenly began stretching out into forever and turning a blinding shade of white...!!  
  
It was like watching a security camera replay its footage in fast forwards.  
  
People walking and running across the catwalks at blinding speeds....  
  
The image of Unit-00 suddenly thrashing in it's chamber, a sensation of...fear?  
  
Then he saw himself from the outside- that moment that Unit-01 had had looked at him and then he felt as if the Evangelion was now viewing that same moment from his own perspective.  
  
There was a nagging, curious thought- "Do I really look that stupid?" -neither were sure who had thought it first.  
  
Then Shinji felt himself reliving his own recent past, only in reverse- despite being in forwards motion- there was an intense focus on the music from the walkman as he made his way through Tokyo-3.  
  
And then Shinji was staring out at the walkways as people ran past yet again, but this time there was something...something...  
  
 __Ain't No Mountain High enough...__  
  
And then Shinji gasped as he returned to the present- both looking through his own eyes into the Entry Plug and yet also out of those same emerald orbs that were Unit-01's.  
  
There was a nagging presence- an itch at the back of his mind- and Shinji knew that Unit-01 was seeing the exact same dual-vision that he was.  
  
There was a comforting hum of emotion- a feeling that if transcribed into words could possibly be the sentence, "You feel familiar."

  
_"Neural Handshake established!"_ Dr. Akagi was calling out in delight and surprise. _"Holy shit- is that a Synch Ratio of 40%!?"_

_"Great job, Shinji,"_ Misato congratulated him. _"Just hold it stead for a moment while we record your psychographs..."_  
  
There were all sorts of murmurs that Shinji could now hear, people talking that weren't on radio.  
  
The technicians outside?  
  
"Didn't the orange one dive into a negative number?"  
  
"Holy shit, Forty percent!? On a first try?!"  
  
"Thank god it didn't go berserk like DoubleZero did..."  
  
Shinji felt a slight tremor of- what he thought could be- "They're scared of me."  
  
Shinji blinked, was that him that had thought that, or had it been the Evangelion...? No, definitely the Evangelion. Unit-01 was feeling afraid of - upset by- them being scared of...!  
  
_"Ratio's dropping! Shinji, what's going on in there?"_  
  
He didn't care who spoke that line, instead he closed his eyes, and sent out a comforting thought.  
  
"I'm not scared of you."

  
There was a curious thought- was he really not scared? -and then, if there was a face attached to a thought, it could have been a smile of gratitude.  
  
_"Looks like it was just a subtle drop. It's risen back up to 40% and holding steady..."_

Shinji took a deep breath, then exhaled again. "Alright, then," He spoke finally. "Are we going to go kick some Angelic ass, or are we just going to sit here all day doing nothing?"  


* * *

 

Gendo Ikari had planned for every possible outcome of this day.  
  
Gendo Ikari had planned for the possibility that Shinji would refused to pilot. Rei would have to take his place, or appear 'coerced' into doing it to get Shinji to Pilot.  
That had not happened.  
  
Gendo Ikari had planned for the possibility that Shinji would pilot, but would not be able to synchronize. Contingency: Rei would have to take his place.  
  
That had not happened either.  
  
Gendo Ikari had planned for the possibility that Shinji would have an exceptionally high Synch Score due to the soul inside that Eva being that of his Mother's and that tragic final moment they'd shared together.  
  
That....had not happened exactly according to plan.  
  
Gendo Ikari's wife had died outside of the Evangelion's Entry Plug- she had not been absorbed into the Core as she had suggested as a plan.  
  
The question now remained- just what had Shinji synchronized with and what was it that gave them such an abnormally high first-time synchronization?  
  
As Unit-01 was loaded into the launch tube, Gendo steeped his fingers in a trademarked pyramid, and hid his mouth behind it.  
Given the troubles with Unit-00- the AI of Unit-01 had been expected to have a similar reaction.  
  
Gendo Ikari had planned for that from that experiment, and had the Eva gone berserk in the chamber like it's predecessor, the power cable would be ejected this time within mere moments, rather than the two-and-a-half minutes it took to undo the Eva's over-ride of the controls.  
  
Thankfully, that had not happened either.  
  
 _ **_"EVA! LAUNCH!"_**_

  
Cameras watched as Unit-01 was sent hurtling up into the city above, another camera observed Shinji inside the Entry Plug...  
  
...Gendo Ikari had not planned for the boy to come out in this way.  
  
The mix tape full of pre-90's music, it seemed, had been a more positive influence on the boy than they had expected.  
  
He couldn't argue the results, however. It seemed that Yui had been right.  
  
"We power them with love- the kind that makes you smile."  
  
Those had been her words, and it seemed that everything pointed in that being the right direction.  
  
Unit-02's costly delays had definitely been due to not following that particular path, and as for Unit-00...the less said about that the better.  
  
But surely, surely a single mix-tape given to a single boy couldn't have been enough to cause such a massive first-time synch-score of Forty Percent!  
  
Unit-01 appeared on the streets of Tokyo-3, long since having been put into battle configuration, a fair distance away from the Angel.  
  
It was to be a crash course in getting the Evangelion to even walk let alone---  
  
[_"Wait. Is that....music?"_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Ulif-peWc)  
  
 __"Listen, baby"__  
  
It was, and it wasn't just any old music either- Shinji was actively singing along with the singer in the music that should not have been playing over that radio frequency at all.  
  
 __"Ain't no mountain high, Ain't no valley low, Ain't no river wide enough, baby,"__  
  
Unit-01 took a tentative step forwards- smoother, quicker, faster than could have been expected.  
  
 __If you need me, call me. No matter where you are, No matter how far__ But Shinji wasn't singing on the female's lines- almost but he was mouthing the words along regardless, even as Unit-01 began moving into a quick walk.  
  
 __"Don't worry, baby,"__  
  
The Evangelion's walk began to speed up into a run...  
  
_Just call my name, I'll be there in a hurry, You don't have to worry_  
And then someone shouted out- _"Unit-01's external speakers are turned on!"_  
  
Wait- did that mean that--?  
  
 __"'Cause baby, There ain't no mountain high enough!"__ Unit-01 suddenly jumped through the air as Shinji suddenly sang loud and proud- racing towards the Third Angel, who was suddenly turning around to face the incoming Eva with surprise.  
  
If the Angels could speak- the Third would be yelling- "WHAT IS THIS NOISE!?"  
  
And then Unit-01's feet landed on Sachiel's chest, sending it flying backwards in a burst of sound that quite possibly could have been the start of a sonic boom.  
  
 __"Ain't no valley low enough! Ain't no river wide enough!"__  
  
With that- however- Unit-01 landed on it's feet and began running towards the still flying Angel, all the while it and it's pilot singing along... They caught up, and then with a massive swinging fist- sent the still air-borne Third Angel flying upwards from a giant upper cut.  
  
 __"To keep me from getting to you!"__  
  
Wait. Gendo's eyes blinked at that thought. Yes. There was something like a secondary female voice overlapped on top of the one from the song that was playing. Wasn't there?  
  
 _..._  
  
 __"Remember the day, I set you free? I told you, You could always count on me."__ Shinji sang, as Unit-01 reached up for their left shoulder, and then...  
  
_"He delpoyed the Prog. Knife!?"_ Dr. Akagi cried out in surprise as a small knife ejected from a holder.  
  
 __"From that day on I made a vow, I'll be there when you want me, Some way, some how"__ Unit-01 got into a position, holding out a glowing vibrating blade in a way that looked like a baseball batter ready to hit an oncoming ball....Well, if that oncoming ball were coming back down from it's upwards trip.  
  
_"How did he know about that?!"_ Misato asked. _"We never told him!"_  
  
 __"'Cause baby, There ain't no mountain high enough! Ain't no valley low enough! Ain't no river wide enough! To keep me from getting to you, babe!"__  
  
And then Unit-01 leaped upwards- not even noticing the umbilical cord from it's back stretching out to the max limit and nearly popping out as they swung with the small knife and slashed through the Third Angel's thick hide.  
  
Orange goop went flying in all directions as the Third Angel hit the ground- and then Unit-01 kept going up.  
  
 __"Oh no, Darlin'!"__ Shinji let off a grin as the cord suddenly yanked them back down from it's maximum stretching range and...  
  
 __"No wind, No Rain...! Nor winter's cold, can stop me, babe...!"__ With a twist of their hand, Unit-01 brought the Prog-Knife down straight on the Sachiel's chest, digging down through straight the Third Angel's rib-cage and piercing something vital- it's many eyes, some of which were merely decorative, all widened in surprise and the Angel began thrashing in a desperate attempt to get Unit-01 off of it.  
  
 __"Oh, no, if you're ever in trouble, I'll be there on the double! Just send for me..."__  
  
And then it's wriggling just dug it's own grave- the wound was widened, and then a massive gush of orange liquid went flying everywhere like a paper-meche volcano erupting.  
  
 __"Oh Baby!"__  


* * *

  
Of all the things Gendo Ikari had planned for....  
  
This had definitely not been one of them.

 __"My love is alive, Way down in my heart, Although we are miles apart."__  
  
In the NERV command center, everyone just stared with slack jaws at the lyrical dissonance to what they had just witnessed.  
  
Rei, meanwhile, just blinked, and then simply said, "Impressive strategy."  
  
 __"If you ever need a helping hand, I'll be there on the double, As fast as I can!"__  


* * *

  
  
Meanwhile- the Third Angel's body began to dissolve away, joining the massive flood of liquid that threatened to overwhelm the city streets and turn Tokyo-3 into an Orange-colored Vennice.  
  
 __"Don't you know that there ain't no mountain high enough!_  
 _Ain't no valley low enough!_  
 _Ain't no river wide enough!_  
 _To keep me from getting to you!"__  
  
Inside the Evangelion's own little mental landscape, however, Shinji and the presence in his mind that he'd come to recognize as Unit-01, just continued to sing, even after there was nothing left of the Angel, leaving their giant form kneeling there in the streets, Prog. knife digging into the city pavement, and generally looking rather heroic.  
  
 __"Don't you know that there ain't no mountain high enough..._  
 _Ain't no valley low enough..._  
 _Ain't no river wide enough..."__

* * *

  
  
And so the Third Angel had been defeated....by singing.  
  
Gendo Ikari closed his eyes and tried, and failed, to hold back a laugh of amusement.  
  
The council of old men would not like this development one bit.  



	2. Here come the Men in Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovering from the Third Angel battle, we take a breather before once more diving into the deep.

"So....what just happened exactly?" Misato finally asked as Unit-01 was being brought back to the launch track to be lowered back down into the docks.  
  
"I think...." Ritsuko took a few moments to look over the recorded data, then offered a guess. "Unit-01 might have manifested it's A.T. field as sound waves?"  
  
"Might?" Misato asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, we never picked up an A.T. field off of it during the previous attacks, only when it first spawned..." Ritsuko continued to look over the data. "So it's possible that the Angel just didn't think it needed a wide-spread field to stay alive, and then Unit-01 just totaly decimated it before it could put a field up?"  
  
"Or we could be completely wrong about the A.T. field thing entirely," Misato offered.  
  
"Or we could just be--" Ritsuko turned to scowl at Misato. "Why would we be wrong about the A.T. Field theory?"  
  
"It's basically just the bio-signature the thing gives off, isn't it?" Misato asked. "Maybe we're wrong about the Angels- and the Eva- being able to manifest it physically?"  
  
"You've seen what Antarctica looks like right now, haven't you?" Ritsuko asked.  
  
"To-may-to, to-mah-to," Misato replied. "It's a giant volcano. What is there to see? You've seen one, you've seen them all."  
  
"It's a giant volcano that should never have formed in the first place," Ritsuko replied. "We're still picking up the occasional flares of the Second Angel's A.T. field, and you really think we could be wrong about it?"  
  
"Hey, I'm just giving the possibility that we've got this whole thing ass-backwards," Misato then smirked. "What if the Angels are just deathly allergic to music about love?"  
  
"So you're saying we should 'love and tolerate' them into an early grave, then?" Ritsuko asked, not really sure what to make of this.  
  
"I'm just offering suggestions here, Ritz." Misato said with a motion of opening her arms wide. "Even if they're dumb ones."  
  
"And I'm shooting them down just like you keep doing to mine." Ritsuko replied, as she turned to leave.  
  
"Heeyy, that's not fair," Misato pouted. "You know I'm just joking about---"  
  
"I'll write you up a song about Love and Tolerance, Misato," Ritsuko gave an off handed wave as she left the observation room to supervise Unit-01's return. "Maybe you can sing the Angels to death with it."

* * *

Rei Ayanami- First assigned Child pilot for the Evangelion Project- waited outside the entry plug for Unit-01 as it unscrewed from it's resting place, and then popped open.  
  
There was a small flood of LCL leaking out from the door- even though logically it all should have been drained by now- and then a coughing and sputtering Shinji Ikari stepped out.  
  
"Wow...word of the wise," He said, even as he leaned against the edge of the Entry Plug's door frame for support, "do NOT go in one of these things on an empty stomach... Urgh... Why didn't anyone tell me that it tastes worse coming back up than going down?"  
  
"I did warn you that the LCL tasted like Blood, did I not?" Rei asked, staring at him flatly even as the technicians there helped him climb down out of the plug without slipping on the metal.  
  
"No, I wasn't talking about the orange goop," Shinji said, "I almost lost my lunch, though..."  
  
"How could you lose your lunch?" Rei asked, tilting her head slightly to the side. "It's almost time for dinner."  
  
"You....I...." Shinji just blinked.  
  
"Don't bother with the metaphors, kid," Ritsuko said as she walked up. "Jokes like that just fly over her head."  
  
"No, my ears would catch it, as most jokes travel through the air as sound waves," Rei said in a way that sounded completely serious, but at the same time...somewhat humorous?  
  
"Well, either that, or you've got the best damned poker face in this entire place," Ritsuko shook her head with a chuckle.  
  
"But I don't play poker--" Rei protested.  
  
"Annnyways!" Ritsuko turned to Shinji, offering out a hand. "Congrats on saving the world."

"Thanks," Shinji shook it. "It was a team effort though."  
  
"More like a duet, I'd say," Ritsuko said, much to Shinji's confusion.  
  
"Er....you heard that?" Shinji blinked.  
  
"All of Tokyo-3 heard you," Rei helpfully informed him. "Your external speakers were turned on."  
  
Shinji glanced backwards at the Evangelion he'd just exited, and sighed, "Well that's something we'll have to work on."  
  
"Guess so," Ritsuko chuckled. "Annnyways," She swiped the connectors off of Shinji's head, "I'll just be taking these back to do some quick data scans. Ayanami, care to escort him to the showers so he can get the LCL washed off?"  
  
"I will do my best," Rei nodded.  
  
"Great then," Ritsuko then turned to leave. "There should be some spare NERV uniforms in the lockers that should roughly be in your size, so feel free to toss the LCL soaked stuff into the hazard bin!"  
  
"Alright, thanks," Shinji nodded.  
  
"If you'll follow me, Pilot Ikari," Rei began to lead him the other way across the ramp.  
  
"Shinji," he corrected her. "My name is Shinji Ikari."  
  
"Pilot...Shinji," Rei corrected herself, pausing for a moment. "I am Ayanami, Rei."  
  
"Pleasure to meet you, Ayanami," Shinji said with a nod.  
  
They walked for a few moments, and then Rei spoke again. "What was it like?"  
  
"Huh?" Shinji blinked. "What was what like?"  
  
"Successfully Synchronizing to Forty Percent," Rei clarified.

"Ah," Shinji nodded in understanding. "Right..." He thought for a moment. "It was like...I was looking into someone else's mind. It's like you know something but it's..." he frowned. "I can't really describe it right now. It's like the feeling fades after a bit."  
  
"I see," Rei mused on it for a moment.  
  
"But we could talk," Shinji said firmly. "Well, no, not really talk. It's more like, you know how you can think a feeling and know there are words associated to it, but you can't say those words afterwards?"  
  
"Occasionally, yes," Rei nodded.  
  
"I felt her thoughts...Unit-01....she was scared of everyone," Shinji said. "That's why our synch ratio fell briefly. She started panicking."  
  
"Her?" Rei asked.  
  
"Yeah," Shinji nodded. "I get the feeling that she thinks of herself as a girl...and man, 'Unit-01' just sounds so informal of a name. I really need to come up with something better."  
  
Rei went silent as they walked towards the locker rooms.  
  
"So...um....what exactly happened to you?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Unit-00," Rei said simply. "We could not synchronize."  
  
"Yeah, but I mean..." He motioned at her leg and arm, "if you don't mind me asking. How did that happen?"  
  
"Negative Synchronization numbers," Rei replied. "Unit-00 entered a berserker rage that caused my body to become damaged inside the Entry Plug.... His...?" She paused for a moment, then nodded. "His rage was directed at me specifically. Thankfully, the damage has healed quickly. I do not need the leg cast, however Commander Misato insists that I wear it for another day."  
  
"So it wasn't broken?" Shinji asked.  
  
"My leg suffered multiple fractures and several bifurcated muscle groups," Rei replied simply.  
  
"Wait...what?" Shinji blinked. "When did it happen, if everything's healed up enough for you to be walking?"  
  
"This morning," Rei replied just as simply. Shinji stopped walking, and Rei continued on for a few moments before she realized he'd stopped. "Pilot Shinji?" She turned around to look at him. He was...only just slightly confused. The rest of his expression looked to be like "That's amazing!"  
  
"So...like... do Eva Pilots get amazing healing factors or something?" Shinji asked.  
  
"No," Rei said simply. "I was made for this war just as the Evangelions were. I share their regenerative D.N.A."  
  
"..." Shinji's expression went full on confused for a whole moment before he then said, "So...you're basically a human sized Eva?"  
  
"...Essentially, yes," Rei nodded.  
  
Shinji then let loose a goofy grin, "That's awesome!"  
  
"That's the first time anyone has ever had that reaction," Rei replied, blinking in surprise.  
  
"So do you have super strength?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Yes," she answered, "although I am under orders to not use it unless it's an emergency."  
  
"Sweet!" he replied.  
  
"How were you and Unit-01 able to Synchronize so well on a first attempt?" Rei asked.  
  
"Turns out, she's got the same mixtape my mom gave me stuck inside this little data-bank inside her brain. We've basically both grown up with the same songs," Shinji answered with a laugh. "So it was pretty easy for us to link up with those songs."

* * *

In his office, Gendo Ikari smiled slightly as he heard this over the security feed.  
  
"Is that's what you were doing inside the Entry Plug that day, Yui?" he asked himself, even as he gathered documents into a folder to use as a reference for when he talked to those old men.  
  
 _"I see, then perhaps what Unit-00 and I lack is an emotional common ground?"_ Rei mused.  
  
 _"Maybe!"_ Shinji replied enthusiastically. _"And if there isn't one now, then we'll just have to figure out how to make it ourselves!"_  
  
Gendo shook his head, and began to put on his mask once more.  
  
If they could get Unit-00 to work with Rei, that would be a miracle in of itself.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Berlin, Germany...  
  
The Second Child received a late-night phone call, stating that the Third Angel had been defeated.  
  
Immediately, she ordered the relevant footage sent to her computer.  
  
Half-asleep and yet quickly working her way up to being fully wide awake, the red-haired girl slipped out of bed and woke her computer up from it's screen-saver mode.  
  
She minimized the torrent window, presently downloading some recently-aired shows and movies that she needed to catch up on, and opened up her email.  
  
Quickly, her blue eyes zoomed to the top of the list to find the one whose sender was labeled "NERV-2", and then opened it.  
  
There was a link to the private NERV server- her computer automatically filled in the relevant log-in details and then moved her on past the security firewall.  
  
And there- after all of that- was a simple video, waiting to be played.  
  
She plugged in her headphones, put them on over her ears, and then clicked play.  
  
What followed was something her still slightly-asleep brain had little trouble understanding, but after it had finished, she scowled and thought 'Wait...is this someone's idea of a joke??'  
  
The newest pilot had defeated an Angel while...singing??  
  
A re-watch of the footage caused her mind to wake up slightly more. And then again. And again.  
  
Each time, she just couldn't figure out how this could be possible? Fighting an Angel by singing?  
  
THIS had been their first victory??  
  
"....How!?"  
  
There was no way this could have happened.  
  
There was simply no way...! This had to be a joke...! A...a ... A Fluke!! It had to be a mistake!  
  
Someone was trolling her, just had to be...!  
  
But no, this was authentic footage. A real battle had happened and she just couldn't make sense of what the hell she was even watching.  
  
The Second Child would not be getting any more sleep that night.

* * *

Shinji stared at the LCL soaked jeans that had been through so much up until now.  
  
The long shower he'd taken to get the LCL out of his hair had given the stuff in his clothes time to dry.  
  
"And yeah, these pants are absolutely dead," Shinji shook his head and did his best to respectfully put the stiff-as-a-board, orange-dyed, might-as-well-be-made-out-of-cardboard pants into the Hazard bin.  
  
With him wearing a NERV uniform that was at least a size too big, and the way that those pants pretty much refused to go in, it was a very comical sight to behold.  
  
"Come...on...!" Shinji grunted as he made a note for future reference to throw the LCL soaked stuff into the hazard bin before it got a chance to dry. "Die with some dignity, would you!?"  
  
Then there was Rei who was lying down on a bench nearby, eyes closed in boredom as her left hand's fingers tapped against the edge of her leg cast in a way that sounded vaguely musical in some way.  
  
Such was the sight that Misato found her two wards in when she finally managed to get down to the shower room.  
  
"....Need some help there, Shinji?" Misato offered.  
  
The look Shinji shot at her over his shoulder was hilarious- somewhere between an enraged 'no, really, ya think?' and a pleading, 'yes please!'  
  
Misato laughed, but went over to help regardless.  
  
And help, as it turned out, was simply taking out a small, silver metal lighter, asking Shinji to stand back, and then igniting the LCL soaked pants before shoving them into the bin as the flames caused the LCL to loosen up.

"There! That's that," Misato grinned as she clicked the lighter closed.  
  
"So, what now?" Shinji asked, going over to the locker he'd stored his stuff in and went to take it out. "Do I have to write reports or anything?"  
  
"Nah," Misato shook her head. "Your dad- Commander Ikari- is the one who does all of that."  
  
"What- really?" Shinji frowned as he put his jacket on. "That seems...weird."  
  
"Honestly, we barely see him," Misato admitted. "Always locked up in his office dealing with one thing or another. You know it's either one of two days when you see him wandering around outside."  
  
"What's that?" Shinji asked, making sure his Walkman and headphones were secured in his jacket pocket.  
  
"Either it's going to be a really quiet day and he doesn't have anything to do besides take a walk," Misato hesitated for a moment, "or things are about to get really, _really_ bad really, _really_ quickly, if they haven't already."  
  
"And he needs to take a personal hand and intervene?" Shinji guessed.  
  
"Something like that." Misato nodded, then asked, "So, you got everything?"  
  
"Yeah," Shinji nodded.  
  
"Great," Misato then clapped her hands in Rei's direction. "Rei, C'mon, we're leaving."  
  
The girl got up in a single fluid motion that Shinji thought was rather remarkable considering the cast on her leg hindering movement.

* * *

 

"Where are we going?" Shinji asked as Misato lead them both back down to the landing garage.  
  
"My place-" Misato then clarified- "which is also your place, and Rei's too. You should have seen the place they had Rei in before I stepped in. Barely even a house, really."  
  
"It was sufficient," Rei said.  
  
"You were letting a family of _talking **rats**_ live inside your fridge, and you weren't even bothering to shop for groceries, Rei," Misato countered. "That is not 'sufficient'."  
  
"I do not know how to cook, therefor eating out was the most efficient use of my salary," Rei countered.  
  
"Wait, we get paid?" Shinji asked, completely ignoring the "talking rats" comment as something that was completely normal in this world.  
  
"You do after we get everything sorted out tomorrow," Misato nodded.  
  
"Sweet!" Shinji grinned.  
  
"Besides that, I do not see your concern about my spending habits," Rei continued on. "The only food we've had that wasn't take out is prepackaged and usually has microwave instructions."  
  
"Hey, Food is _Food!_ And you weren't buying anything at all, which is my _point_ , Rei," Misato protested. "Chips- soda- ice cream- _Beer._.." She let out a 'mmh' as she trailed off for a moment. "By the way, you kids aren't allowed to have that."

  
"I don't drink anyways," Shinji frowned. "You know, I'm beginning to think we'd be better off if you two just let me take over cooking duties from now on."  
  
"You can cook?" Misato's voice sounded... hopeful?  
  
"My aunt taught me," Shinji nodded. "I'm fairly good at it."  
  
Rei and Misato both stopped walking then-- and Shinji took a moment to realize it before he turned around to see-- they both had far away looks in their eyes.  
  
"Me and my big mouth," Shinji sighed.

* * *

 

Shinji's mouth went wide open when he saw how large of an apartment that Misato owned.  
  
Suffice to say- the main room with the sofa and the wide-screen TV and a coffee table was big enough to hold Unit-01's head comfortably with what looked like room to spare. And that wasn't even counting the rest of the place.  
  
"How...?" He just stared at what looked to be a fairly modern entertainment system, even despite the setbacks caused by Second Impact.  
  
"Even a low ranking job at NERV pays pretty well these days," Misato said with a grin. "Then factoring in multiple incomes...Well, I figured I could afford a big enough place to house any Pilots who didn't get houses on their own, or ended up in a dump like Rei did."  
  
Rei, meanwhile, went over to the sofa and flopped down with a moan of "Can I take the cast off now?"  
  
"No, wait for Ritz to do it tomorrow," Misato ordered. "I want to be sure that leg is properly healed up before we take it off!"  
  
"Fine..." Rei replied.  
  
"So then," Misato turned to Shinji. "Ready for the tour?"  
  
"Sure," Shinji nodded.  
  
"So over here is obviously the main room," Misato waved at the room they were in with one hand, giving the 'grand tour' without actually going anywhere. "To the left is the Kitchen, and down the hallway is the bathroom, and the bedrooms. Rei's is on the back right, and mine's on the front left. Back left and front right are open so take your pic. Bathroom is first on the left, right next to mine. Also, I get first claim in the morning if I'm up before you, got it?"  
  
"Got it. Which side has windows?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Right side," Misato answered.  
  
"I'll take front right then, I guess," Shinji nodded.

* * *

"Is it too late to switch rooms?" Shinji asked upon realizing that he'd chosen one of the smallest rooms in the apartment.  
  
"Nope!" Misato said with a final decree as she scrawled a message (with permanent marker) on a wooden sign that had been long since attached to the door's exterior.  
  
Shinji sent a casual glance at the sign- "Shinji's Rockin' Suite" had been scribbled in in English lettering.  
  
Oh well.  
  
"So once you get settled in, I recommend getting to bed early," Misato continued on. "We've got a looot of paperwork to do tomorrow."  
  
"I thought you said my dad took care of that stuff?" Shinji frowned.  
  
"Oh, all the stuff above our pay grades, yeah, but for stuff on it and below? Hah! Nope. Gotta do that stuff ourself," she then clapped a hand on his shoulder and added, "especially if you want to get paid, there's stuff you need to sign personally."  
  
"Great," Shinji frowned. "Speaking of my dad, I take it I'm probably not going to be seeing much of him?"  
  
"Remember what I said earlier about good and bad days?" Misato waited for him to nod before continuing, "Well, let's hope it happens on one of the good days rather than the bad."

* * *

That night, sometime just past midnight, Shinji woke up feeling hungry.  
  
So, he walked to the kitchen, and looked through the fridge. He knew from looking before dinner (Standard ingredient check. He would have to go shopping first thing after getting his paycheck) that there would be pudding cups in there somewhere.  
  
Half-asleep, Shinji stared into the fridge as he tried to process what he was seeing.  
  
The first thing was a clear _lack_ of pudding cups. Had Misato or Rei eaten them after dinner or something?  
  
The second thing naturally came after the first. There was a Penguin sitting in the fridge with a bowl of custard in one flipper, and a cold fish-stick from dinner in the other.  
  
The third thing, very clearly, was that the fish-stick had been dunked in the custard, and had been half-way to the Penguin's mouth when Shinji had opened the fridge door.  
  
Shinji's half-asleep brain processed this, and decided that there was nothing out of the ordinary about this situation at all.  
  
And yet somehow he came to the conclusion, "Did you eat the pudding cups?"  
  
The Penguin let loose a quiet "Wark!" and shook its...his?...head 'no.' Then, it took a bite off of the custard covered fish-stick while not moving its eyes away from Shinji's.  
  
"Alright then," Shinji yawned, and then settled on grabbing a yogurt cup while making a mental note to add pudding cups to the grocery list. "Good night."  
  
"Wark wark!" The Penguin replied with a small wave that lead into the fish-stick being dunked in custard yet again.  
  
Shinji closed the door to the fridge and went to find a spoon to eat his yogurt with.

* * *

The next morning, during a breakfast that consisted of sugar-coated fruit-flavored cereal loops and some, Shinji related his experience like so: "I had a dream last night about a penguin raiding our fridge for fish-sticks and custard."  
  
"Weird dream, but we do have a penguin who lives with us," Misato replied. "Lives in the freezer. Never known him to like custard on his fish-sticks though." She mused for a moment, "Actually, do we even have any custard mix? I don't remember buying any..."  
  
"Wait," Shinji blinked. "We have a penguin??"  
  
"Ah, yeah, Pen-pen," Misato nodded. "He's been with me since Second Impact. The li'l guy pretty much gave us an early warning that something bad was about to happen. Dad managed to get me out of there just before everything...well..." She smiled sadly. "You know."  
  
"Riiight," Shinji turned back to his cereal. "Well, it's not the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Down at the beach near where I lived before I came here? There are crabs the size of cars at their smallest, and they're about the size of those old Double Decker buses at their largest."  
  
"Really?" Misato mused. "I thought they made that size stuff up to scare people away from the beaches."  
  
"Oh no, trust me, those crabs are horrible, horrible creatures." Shinji shook his head. "Tourists always thought the same thing. I tell ya, you ain't ever seen anything stranger than someone being run out of town by a crab they managed to piss off enough."  
  
"How do you--?" Rei began to ask, only for Shinji to raise his hand with a 'shoosh' motion.  
  
"You don't." He stressed the 'Don't', "I repeat. Do NOT. Want. To Know."

* * *

  
Rei, it seemed, had lead a sheltered life.  
  
The car-trip back to NERV was filled with her asking all sorts of questions about the giant crabs.  
  
"How about killing one," Rei asked, "is that even possible?"  
  
While before, pretty much every answer could be headed off with a "You don't want to know," this one actually gave Shinji some pause as he remembered watching a trained crab wrangler take care of a giant crab that had decided to attack a convenience store.  
  
The method involved the man jumping up onto the crab's back, where it's eyes couldn't see him, and then following it up by bringing out a rather large and sharp knife and introducing it to the Crab's shell.  
  
Shinji decided to answer with a simple, "Very carefully."

* * *

"So this paperwork is supposed to be for me getting paid, right?" Shinji said after having read through every paper before signing anything.  
  
"Yeah?" Misato nodded.  
  
"So why does it mention that I'm contractually obligated to go to school even if I, and I quote, 'have already graduated'?" he raised an eyebrow inquisitively.  
  
"Ah, that's...well..." She shrugged. "I don't really understand this legal stuff myself. Probably some redundancy thing to keep something in check with some vague policy someone made a hundred years ago, I'll bet."  
  
"Or it's just a way to keep me busy on a day to day basis?" Shinji offered one of the rather more likely solutions. "Or is it just to keep me under surveillance when I'm not piloting?"  
  
Or there was the correct answer?  
  
Misato really had to give the kid credit, he was smarter than he let on.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the darkness of a sealed room...  
  
Three obelisks out of many were lit up with spotlights. Together, they faced the one known as Gendo Ikari.  
  
_"And we are to assume,"_ Said one of the three obelisks, _"that the plan remains unchanged despite this...divergence?"_  
  
"You know as well as I do," Gendo spoke, "the scrolls make no mention of how the angels are to be defeated. Only that they are. Shamshel should appear sometime in the next three weeks."

* * *

Simultaneously, in the deep dark of the Ocean...  
  
Something stirred.

* * *

_"I don't buy it. The fight was written as being 'long, hard and near cause' of the Impact,"_ Another obelisk spoke. _"The fight the Two Thirds had was simply too fast. Too quick... Too.... Easy!"_  
  
The audio warbled at the speaker's closeness to the microphone, giving off the impression of some kind of feedback.  
  
Gendo remained stoic. "Easy, yes, but it proves a point to the world. NERV is now trusted with the defense of the earth."  
  
_"By a video that went viral on the internet without our approval!"_ the third obelisk said. _"Who recorded it remains a mystery to us... the user has covered their tracks well, but to have gotten such clear video quality... they must be someone within Tokyo-3."_

* * *

 

Bubbles rose in mass as large tentacles shifted about, a massive body was preparing to move.

* * *

"I assure you, Section Two is on the case," Gendo tried to appease them. "Whoever recorded the fight will be apprehended...and recruited."  
  
_"Recruited!?!"_ the second obelisk's audio warped again at his anger.  
  
"Yes," Gendo nodded. "I wish to hire them to act as our Publicist."  
  
_"You simply make no sense, Ikari. I blame your wife for that."_ The first Obelisk remarked coldly.  
  
"You can also blame my wife for putting the music into Unit-01 instead of performing the proper Contact Experiment," Gendo said simply. "I have it on good authority that Yui's meddling is the reason for such a high first time synchronization."

* * *

A giant eye opened, sending bubbles flying upwards yet again.  
  
The massive white orb with a glowing green Iris shifted around as it took stock of it's whereabouts.  
  
Then another eye opened- followed by another, and another, and then-- ...sixteen, seventeen, eighteen... Oh WOW is that a lot of eyes.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Ritsuko finished removing the cast off of Rei's leg, the red eyed girl suddenly stared off into space.  
  
"Something wrong?" Ritsuko asked.  
  
Rei blinked, then looked to her and said, "Just..." She frowned. "I feel as if something has just happened that already happened once before....and yet..." She then nodded. "Yes. Something is very much wrong."

* * *

Inside a certain apartment, inside a certain freezer, a certain Penguin's eyes snapped open.

* * *

The creature began to surface from its hiding spot in the deepest part of the ocean, and as it moved, It thought.  
  
 **~The Endless Knowledge. The Gaze of Emerald Orbs.~**  
  
Higher and higher it Ascended- the light from the surface slowly casting its form into a visible shape.  
  
 **~The One Who Sees All; Knows All; Becomes the Keeper of All.~**  
  
It was black- pitch black- with an uncountable number of writhing tentacles tipped with sharp, black-bone honed blades.  
  
 **~The Never Ending Hunt. The Tempter of Power.~**  
  
It was round- a giant eye-ball with so many eyes that it seemed to see in all directions.  
  
 **~I Am Silence; The Night's Blade.~**  
  
The surface breached as if the mass had done it- but instead, there was nothing at all.  
  
There was no sign of the being that had just rapidly ascended...for it had hidden itself in plain sight.  
  
 **~Seek me out- and Fail. For I am _The Unseen Observer_.~**  
  
There was a faint ripple in the air- a discoloration of the color green...  
  
Wherever the creature had gone, that simple effect told us it's direction...  
  
Japan; Tokyo-3.

* * *

"So....Plug Suits?" Shinji mused as he stepped into the machine that performed a 3d scan of his body, presently covered in a skin-tight spandex suit covered in red tracking orbs. "What are they, exactly?"  
  
"They're basically noise filters," Ritsuko explained as the machine whirled up and began it's work. "They keep the necessary synchro sensors in place on your body, but also keep them from getting soaked by the LCL and frying expensive technology. Also, it keeps the LCL off of most of your skin, too. It's quicker to wash it off of just your head than your whole body."  
  
"So basically a disposable flight suit, then?" Shinji summarized it.  
  
"There's more to it than that," Ritsuko explained. "If your Eva was damaged enough, or you're caught up in a situation outside of the Eva, the Plug Suit acts as a second set of skin. Really durable skin at that. Ayanami's tested her suit out by jumping off of her Eva's shoulder to the ground, she's had it shot at, had swords try to cut it... It's pretty much an all purpose body armor and absorbs most of the damage from anything. Worst you'll usually get is some bruising. They're not disposable, either, and freaking expensive to make in the first place. The LCL just glides right off with little fuss, so you don't even really need to wash it either unless you're in the Plug for more than a few hours."  
  
"So put a helmet on it and you're a Kamen Rider," Shinji then cracked a grin. "Do we get waist mounted changers to switch us out of our clothes in a flash of light?"  
  
"No way," Ritsuko laughed- then trailed off as she mused, "although that would significantly lower the time to prep for Sorte." She then shook her head once the machine continued its work, "Annnyways! We should have your new Plug Suit ready to go by tomorrow. Then we can start doing synch tests to make sure everything's working right."  
  
"And then we just wait for the next Angel to attack, right?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Well, we won't be just sitting around on our asses, kid." Ritsuko smirked. "We've still got the problems with Unit-00 to sort out. And then there's the proper training that you've still got to go through. You shouldn't have even known about the Prog' Knife yet."  
  
"Did you just say Frog knife?" Shinji asked, blinking in confusion.  
  
"'Prog.' Short for Progressive Blade Knife," Ritsuko explained. "The blade is made up of highly excitable metals that, when you put a charge through it, can cut through pretty much anything. I've been working on a chainsaw-sword version, but so far haven't got the funds approved to make it yet." She laughed. "Can you imagine an Eva just cutting through an Angel with a giant Chainsaw?"  
  
"I can imagine it, yeah," Shinji grimaced. "I can imagine the mess it'd make, anyways."  
  
"Yeah, did NOT see Sachiel turning into a flood of tang like that," Ritsuko grumbled. "Hopefully the next one will give us a body we can examine. But anyways. Yeah. The Prog. Knife is one of the standard Eva weapons. There's also a Pallet Gun in the other shoulder....wait. Crap. Wasn't I asking you how you knew the knife was even there?" Shinji nodded. "So how?"  
  
"Unit-01 told me," Shinji answered.  
  
"The--" Ritsuko blinked. "Unit-01 told you that there was a knife stored in your shoulder??"  
  
"Yup," Shinji nodded. "We needed a weapon and that was the best one for the job."  
  
"I see..." Ritsuko mused. The scanner powered down then, however, and she then said. "Alright, you're free to go. I'll get to work on the plug suit."  
  
"What, I don't get to pick colors?" Shinji asked as he stepped off of the machine.  
  
"We usually try to match the Eva's color scheme," Ritsuko said.  
  
"Then I definitely want a different color scheme," Shinji said.  
  
"Hm...Well, you and Ayanami are of similar builds, so I was going to rework one of hers..." Ritsuko thought about it for a moment, and then put on a smile as she happily said, "But on second thought, Definitely not!"  
  
"Wait, does that mean I get a new color scheme, or am I stuck with purple and green?" Shinji asked.  
  
"It'll be a surprise!" And with that, Ritsuko left the room with a flourish of her lab coat.  
  
"....I'm going to be stuck in a giant purple track suit, aren't I?" Shinji hung his head. "Why do I even bother opening my mouth anymore?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been meaning to update this for a while. Expect a 7 or 8 chapter upload spam over the next few days...
> 
> )_) I've been busy.


	3. Ooga Chaka

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Fourth Angel appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooga Oooga Ooga Chakaa!

Silence. That was the order of the morning.  
  
Misato rolled over in bed to glance at her alarm clock.  
  
Only 5:45? There was still some time to sleep in before she had to wake the Pilots up for school...

With a dreamy sigh, she rolled back over and nuzzled her face into her pillow.  
  
Silence filled the apartment...  
  
Then, there was a rattle, and a clack of keys at the front door.  
  
Misato had fallen asleep again.  
  
The front door opened, and a pair of feet came dancing through silently, slipping off shoes even as their owner pushed the door closed with arms full of groceries and other assorted items.  
  
With a muted whistle, Shinji Ikari danced into the kitchen, laying out all of the things he'd bought out onto the table and quickly sorting them away to where they needed to go.  
  
He pried open the lower Freezer door with his feet, gave a small wave to Pen-pen inside, and then handed the penguin some of the Frozen food items to sort into wherever they fit most comfortably.  
  
Once the necessary foods were put away, Shinji shrugged off his jacket, and tossed it back through the doorway onto the sofa in the main room.  
  
"...What you do to meee..." He sang-whispered slightly as he double checked that his headphone's cord wouldn't be getting in the way of what he was going to do next.  
  
Misato never heard it coming.  
  
"[OH AAAAA~AAA~AAAHHH'M~](http://youtu.be/NrI-UBIB8Jk?t=33s)" Shinji sang out loudly as he fired up the stove and stomped his foot on the ground. "HOOKED ON A FEELING!"

"WHO-What- WHERE!?" Misato shot up, wide awake all of a sudden.  
  
"I'm High on belieivinnnnng! That you're in Love with meeeee~~~"  
  
Misato emerged from her bedroom, hair disheveled and blinking groggily as she made her way to the kitchen just in time to watch Shinji crack open a couple of eggs on the edge of a bowl in time to the music that only he could hear at the moment.  
  
"Lips as sweet as candy...it's taste is on my mind..." Shinji continued to sing as, with an expert motion of his hands, the egg-shells split open and dropped their gooey contents into the bowl. "Girl you've got me thirsty, for _another,_ CUP OF WIIINE!" Meanwhile, Shinji went over to start chopping up a small block of cheese into thin slices.  
  
Rei came shuffling in a moment later, clad in sky-blue pajamas and bunny-eared slippers on her feet.  
  
"La la la la la la... La la laaaa la laaa..." Shinji's singing then drifted down into muted humming as he continued to work.

Rei then turned to Misato and asked, "What's for breakfast?"  
  
"I have absolutely no idea," Misato replied as she just turned to return to her bed. "Go ask the chef. I'm going to try to get back to sleep."  
  
Not even a minute later, Shinji went off with another " _IIIIIIII'M_ HOOKED ON A FEELING!" ...but this time, not alone, as a certain Penguin joined in with a loud " _WAAAARKK!_ WA-WARK WA-WA WA-WARK!"  
  
Misato shoved the pillow over her ears and grit her teeth as she growled out a "Pen-Pen, you traitor."

* * *

Rei practically was jogging in place in the elevator as they rode down to the ground level, eager to stretch her limbs out again.  
  
"Remember," Misato began, "you've got synch tests today. So head back to NERV once classes are over."  
  
"Got it," Shinji said as he donned his headphones yet again, making sure that the walkman rested in its usual spot in his jacket.  
  
"Understood," Rei nodded as she stretched her shoulders out.  
  
The elevator came to a halt, and the doors opened.  
  
And with that, the pilots and their Handler went off in separate directions.  
  
The path to the school in question was the quickest walk from one place to another that Shinji had ever been on. Had Misato chosen their particular apartment because of its proximity to the school? Or had it something more to the "totally inconspicuous" security detail that were the local "Neighbors" who were still going about their looping 'morning routine' since about five A.M.?

Section Two, he'd been told they were called, was to NERV as the Secret Service was to the Pre-Impact United States Government. Those poor sods didn't stand a chance. Those brave men in black suits had tried their best to get everyone important to safety... and then ended up being cooked alive due to the entire valley turning into a literal hot pocket within those classic two and a half minutes of microwave...er...lava-heated disaster.  
  
And really, whose bright idea had it been to take the whole freaking government on a sight-seeing tour to Yellowstone right when the Impact happened? Somebody with a lot of foresight, perhaps. But besides Pen-Pen, who could possibly have known that the Second Impact was even going to happen? Why, it'd take a world-wide conspiracy of untold proportions to plan something like that!  
  
Then, the idle thought hit him that maybe someone had caused the Second Impact. Ritsuko did say that the whole mission had been mismanaged... but intentionally? You would have to be stone cold blooded to try to pull something like that off.  
  
Shinji shook his head, muttering, "Great, Doc's conspiracy theories are starting to rub off on me."  
  
The School itself looked to be some old re-purposed office building with the empty lot to the immediate right having been re-purposed into a track field and gym yard. As for parking lots? What parking lots? There was no parking lot at all! Just a field of grass with a few trees and benches scattered about.  
  
"So how many people go to this school?" Shinji asked, looking around the sparsely populated yard.  
  
"One class," Rei answered.  
  
"Wuh?" Shinji blinked in surprise.  
  
"There are only enough students for one class," Rei replied. "Most of the city was evacuated after the Angel attacked, and are probably waiting to see if anything will be around after the next attack."

"O...kay?"  
  
"Also, there were not that many children here in this school as it is. All who are still here have family members who work at NERV," Rei continued to explain as they entered the main building, which was slightly more populated than the outside yard.  
  
The one thing Shinji didn't like about going to school was that there was always a uniform to wear.  
  
Thankfully, it seemed like the "Tokyo-3 High School" (What a bland and unimaginative name) had a fairly relaxed dress code as far as uniforms went.  
  
The female uniforms, which Shinji guessed Rei was wearing the official version of, seemed to consist of a blue, knee-length skirt, and a white button up shirt. None of the girls that he had seen so far wore any identical clothing, but the colors seemed to be the important part.  
  
That was a trait carried over to the male uniforms, which Shinji had received a set of the day before.  
  
What appeared to be the exact same white shirt (only with an extra pocket over the heart), and grey pants. There was supposed to be a red tie that was to be worn, but Shinji had never gotten one, and it seemed like if any of the other male students had, they had foregone wearing any ties at all.  
  
There weren't even any indoor shoes that they had to change into, making the entry hall lockers instead being the students' actual lockers for anything they needed to store rather than for their shoes.

All in all, there was actually quite a bit of variation among the students that Shinji saw as he followed Rei up the stairs to the second floor of the building.  
  
Some guys had shirts that weren't even button-ups, and looked to actually be turned inside out to hide something printed on the outside. Some girls had skirts that went a bit higher than knee length, others had foregone skirts entirely for the same grey pants as the male students.  
  
Oh, there was a guy wearing the tie! ...Around his forehead like some kind of hair-band. He seemed to be talking to a girl who, like Rei, was dressed up in the official uniform, with only one difference, and that was the fancy orange armband around her left arm that read "Class Rep!" in black, precise lettering.  
  
No doubt those two would be ones he would need to learn their names of.

* * *

 

The classroom that everyone was in specifically was labeled "E-4" with the usual little sign that was attached to the wall.  
  
It was the only one like it in the entire hallway, and seemed to have been attached for enough years that the wall around it was cracking apart.  
  
And now Shinji had to wait outside of it for the teacher to call him in.  
  
"Ah, so...we've got a new student today... Please give him a warm welcome."  
  
And so with that dull introduction done, Shinji opened the door and walked in with his usual style.  
  
A style that was loudly interrupted by the Class Rep, who took that as her cue to stand up and bellow out: "STAND! BOW! SIT!"  
  
To Shinji's utter amazement, everyone did exactly as she said, even the Teacher who had evidently been so dull that he had been seated the entire time he gave his previous announcement.  
  
"Er," Shinji took a moment to take it in, before waving to the class with a "Hello! My name's Ikari, Shinji, pleasure to meet you all. I'm down from the beach region, and yes, the Crabs really do get that big down there. There's one other name you can call me by..." He put a dramatic pause in for effort. "Song-lord."  
  
Some of the students all gave him weird looks, while others just seemed to murmur quietly to themselves about how strange he was. Rei, who was sitting at the back next to an empty seat, actually seemed to be struggling to maintain a calm composure.  
  
"Alright then," The teacher, whose face looked as dull and unremarkable as his voice sounded, just motioned over to Rei. "Go sit by Ayanami then, mister Star-fence...."  
  
"Song-Lord, man, get it right," Shinji hung his head in 'defeat', even as he spoke in a clearly exaggerated comedic tone. He got some small chuckles out of that, at least.  
  
Tie-hair, who sat in front of that empty seat, just let out a slight groan, "Great, another crazy one."  
  
To Shinji's right was a boy with glasses, already holding his hand out in greeting. "Aida, Kensuke! At your service, Mr. Song-Lord-Sama!"  
  
"I was joking about that, really," Shinji replied with a grin. "Shinji's fine with me."

"So, is it true?" Kensuke asked, his glasses flashing with a stereotypical reflection of light that Shinji was sure had to be a feature of the lenses somehow.  
  
"Is what true?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Are you the Eva Pilot who sang the Angel to death two days ago?"  
  
All chatter in the room went silent- even the Teacher had taken pause to observe Shinji's answer.  
  
Shinji glanced at Rei out of the corner of his eye, and she just gave a nod.  
  
"Well, I didn't really sing it to death," Shinji replied cautiously. "More like stabbed it in the chest, really."  
  
One second, the room had been quiet.  
  
The next, Shinji was wishing he had ear-plugs in as almost every student in the room was clamoring for him to give them an autograph all at the exact moment.  
  
A quick glance to Rei had the girl holding up a hastily written message on a dry-erase board reading "I am told this is normal behavior. You will need this," before quickly tossing him the marker she had written her message out with.  
  
Shinji had no clue where she had gotten the dry-erase board from, or the marker, and he was starting to suspect that he didn't really want to know.

* * *

Over Tokyo-3, a faint outline of the creature hovered silently.  
  
If we could see it, we would see it's many smaller eyes detaching from it's large body, and spreading out over the city as they transformed into micro-versions of the being that was silently observing the city.  
  
Some of those crafty eye-balls would find their way into the NERV Geo-Front.  
  
Inside, they would find the giant beings known as Evangelions, and would examine both of them at safe distances.  
  
Anything else would be a sure fire way to be detected.  
  
However, what was a 'safe' distance for Unit-01 was nowhere even close to being 'safe' for Unit-00.  
  
The giant behemoth's single eye snapped open and glared at the eyeballs that had infiltrated the room, sending alarms up everywhere.  
  
Unit-00's sensors sent feedback into the MAGI core computers, the results were immediate.  
  
 **_A.T. FIELD DETECTED! CODE BLUE CONFIRMED!_**  
  
But because Unit-00 was staring right at it, and the Eyeballs were quick to scatter, the MAGI system decided that the result was a false alarm and immediately shut the alarms off.

"Freakin' hell," Ritsuko swore as Unit-00 tried to break itself out of its restraints. "What set you off, cream-sickle?"  
  
Unit-01's eyes opened slightly, glancing at Unit-00 in concern, for only she could hear the male Evangelion's cries of rage. __ANGEL! ANGEL! THERE'S AN ANGEL IN HERE!__  
  
"Someone put the coolant on Unit-00!" Ritsuko ordered. "Get that Eva calmed down before it hurts itself!"  
  
And that really was the most likely outcome- Unit-00 was not even plugged into the City Power Grid, all the Eva had was it's internal batteries- the timer already accelerating at a fast rate, even as its struggles increased inside its cage.  
  
 __THE ANGEL IS SPYING ON US RIGHT NOW!!_  
_  
Unit-01 had no way to relay that information to anyone, however, and furthermore, had no way of even confirming if that was really the case or not, as those eyeballs were already hidden away.  
  
"Looks like something might have tripped the Infrared sensors?" a Lieutenant by the name of Maya Ibuki reported to Ritsuko.  
  
"What about that Code Blue that popped up for a moment?" Ritsuko asked.  
  
"False positive, maybe?" Maya shrugged.  
 _  
_YOU HAVE TO LET ME GO! LET ME GO!_ **RIGHT!! _NOW!!!__**  
  
Unit-00 roar's filled the room- audible to all only sounding like an enraged animal.  
  
Unit-01's eyes closed as she tried to turn off her audio sensors. _Just Ignore it._ That was the mantra. _He's just ranting again._

_YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME!!!_ Unit-00 pleaded, letting loose another roar.  
  
The eyeballs, safely out of sight, nodded in agreement.  
  
That one would have to go first.

* * *

 

"So," Tie-hair began, standing up and blocking Shinji's path out of the room as the last bell of the day rang loud and true. "I'm not sure whether I should punch you--"  
  
"Touji!" The Class Rep hissed with a scolding tone, marching over to interfere.  
  
"--Or thank you," The boy, Touji, continued on uninterrupted.  
  
"Er...I'd prefer thanks?" Shinji blinked at the confusing statement. "But ah...what for?"  
  
"Both for the same thing, really," Touji replied, putting his hands in his pants pockets. "You had everyone singing that damned song all of yesterday. My little sis included."  
  
"And that's a punchable offense, how exactly?" Shinji asked.  
  
"For one thing, everyone keeps getting the lyrics wrong," Touji answered. "I can ignore consistent singing, but when everyone's off key and getting the words wrong at the same time- It just gets on my nerves for some reason."  
  
"Okay, so why the thanks then?" Shinji had to ask.  
  
"Well, when that giant bird faced monster showed up my sis was just so damned scared, we almost couldn't get her out of the apartment on time," Touji explained. "Our place was right in that monster's sights when you showed up belting out that song and gave it that- admittedly rather awesome- smack down. As soon as Sakura heard that singing, though, she just..." He shrugged, "I dunno what happened, but it gave her hope, I think. So that's why I'd both like to thank you and punch you at the same time."  
  
"That's surprisingly well thought out," the Class Rep, who earlier, during lunch, had introduced herself as Hikari Horaki, said, "but I'll have to veto any straight forward acts of violence on school grounds!"  
  
"Well, I'm a straight forwards kind of guy, Horaki," Touji replied.  
  
"Let's leave it at the thanks for now," Shinji said, "and if I annoy you with any more songs that caught on with mangled lyrics, I'll let you punch me for it."  
  
"Can't beat that kind of a deal," Touji nodded, then offered his hand. "Suzuhara, Touji."  
  
"Nice to meet you," Shinji shook the boy's hand. "So everything turned out in the end, right?"  
  
"Basically, yeah," Touji nodded. "Nobody got hurt, thank god for that one."

* * *

"Well, that was...." Shinji tried to find the proper words to explain the situation as he and Rei rode an Elevator down into NERV.  
  
"Unexpected?" Rei offered.  
  
"I was going to say different, but yeah, Unexpected works," Shinji chuckled.  
  
The elevator 'ding'ed as it reached the level that the Elevator helpfully Identified as "Terminal Dogma."  
  
"Uh," Shinji looked out into the room beyond as the door opened, "this isn't our floor?"  
  
"...And it's really very stinky that--" Misato caught herself as she realized that Shinji and Rei were inside the elevator. "Oh, hey! I was wondering when you two would show up." She stepped into the elevator along with some other person who she had been talking with. "So yeah, we've got to clean up that mess Unit-00 made."  
  
"What mess?" Rei asked.  
  
"Oh, right, guess you didn't get the memo," Misato shook her head. "Unit-00 activated briefly today. We think some bug flew past it's infrared sensors in the eye," she explained. "Anyways, it almost set off a Code Blue alarm because it thought it detected an A.T. field. We've put it on ice for now until we're sure what happened. Sorry, Rei, looks like no synch. attempts today."

  
"Unit-00 activated on it's own?" Shinji asked. The Elevator doors remained open, possibly out of some internal timer that had been knowingly set longer due to an expected in-flux of traffic. In the mean time, he looked outside the elevator at the large room beyond. Rows and rows of computers and monitors, desks and telephones, people in uniforms idly spinning their chairs side to side as they either talked, typed, or otherwise focused on some unknown task.  
  
"Yeah, completely went berserk," the other elevator goer, one First Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga according to his name tag, replied. "We're running a city wide sensor sweep, though, just in case Unit-00 actually was picking up an Angel signal and was trying to warn us."

  
"What happens if there is an Angel?" Rei asked.  
  
"Yeah, I was kind of under the impression that this wasn't going to be a daily thing," Shinji agreed, scratching at the back of his head as the elevator closed its doors and finally resumed its descent.  
  
"Well, there never was any real guarantee that the Angels would be predictable," Misato answered. "For all we know, after this one it could be like...twenty years before the next one appears!"  
  
"I really hope that we don't end up going a full twenty years between attacks," Shinji grumbled. "A wait like that would just tear at your patience."  
  
"I would imagine that there would be those who would be mightily upset by such a time skip," Rei added mysteriously. "The angels would more than likely restart attacks from the beginning rather than continue the previous ones."  
  
"And there's an idea that you really don't want to think about," Misato shook her head.

* * *

"Purple... and green..." Shinji sighed as he looked at the Plug Suit that had been presented to him in the locker room.  
  
On the coat-hanger, the strange fabric looked like a stretched out spandex Halloween costume.  
  
"There's a reason for that," Ristuko explained, even as Rei changed out of her school uniform to put on her own plug-suit, if only to be prepared for a battle.  
  
Shinji's attention, however, wasn't set on her as most would suspect, instead, he eyed how Ritsuko and Misato observed him. They almost seemed to be expecting him to be looking at Rei! Geeze, he was going to be living with this girl. He already wasn't in that kind of mindset, what did these two think of him?  
  
Fine, if they wanted him to look...  
  
Rei finished putting on the plug suit, which, even on her, looked large and stretched out and not at all--  
  
Rei hit a button on the left wrist, and suddenly the spandex feeling, plastic looking material suddenly contracted with a hiss of air being expelled from vents that seemed to rise up out of the material, forming armor on the tops of her shoulders, the sides of her hips, the back of her hands, and the front of her lower legs. Otherwise, the material became skin tight. Also...  
  
Shinji eyed Ritsuko, "So how come Rei gets to be Blue and White when her Eva is Orange and White?"  
  
"Yeah, Ritz," Misato wriggled her eyebrows at Ritsuko. "How come Rei's got different colors?"

"Oh, alright, fine, you caught me," Ristuko sighed, and brought up the left wrist on Shinji's deactivated Plug-suit. "See this dial next to the contract button?" She turned it slightly- and then the Suit's colors shifted from Purple with Green trim to a Medium-Blue with Light Orange trim. "It's a camouflage system left over from the scraped prototype military armor the Plug Suits were based off of. I couldn't remove it from the system without breaking the shrink-wrap functions. Just pretend it isn't there, alright?"  
  
"What isn't where," Shinji said with a smile, taking the Plug-suit dial in hand and turning it a few times to see what came up. Red and Yellow- Cyan and Gold- Oh god, definitely not Pink and Hot Pink! Who even put that design in there?? Shinji quickly shifted the dial back to blue and orange for the time being. Then, he glanced around for a shower, or at least somewhere to change privately. "Um," he began awkwardly, "Don't you two have somewhere else to be?"  
  
"Oh right! Sure!" Ritsuko laughed, somewhat nervously. "Gotta get Unit-01 prepped for testing!" She clapped her hands and turned to leave.  
  
Misato just chuckled, "Whatever you say, Ritz."

* * *

The Plug Suit felt cramped in all the wrong places.  
  
"How do you get used to this thing?" Shinji lamented, trying futilely to adjust the suit (Namely, where it had formed into armor plates) into more comfortable places as he and Rei walked out onto the catwalk connecting to the Eva's access docks.  
  
"It might need adjustments before it fits properly," Rei shrugged. "Mine feels fine."  
  
"Or you've just gotten used to it already," Shinji rolled his eyes.  
  
Getting into Unit-01 was the same old procedure, only this time Shinji was spared the feeling of the LCL seeping through his clothes onto his skin.  
  
_"Opening pathways...!"_  
  
A flash of light- and then Shinji felt Unit-01's memories of Unit-00's rantings... and he heard what they all needed to hear.  
  
_"Neural Handshake estab--"_  
  
"There's an Angel!" Shinji yelled out. "Unit-00 saw an Angel right in front of it!"  
  
And then all hell broke loose.

* * *

 

Maya Ibuki walked to the stairs as Misato and Makoto waited for the elevator. Her destination was only a floor down, rather than the three or so more that they would have to take. Why not take the stairs? It would be quicker than waiting for the elevator doors to close again.  
  
And in fact, it was. By the time she had descended the stairs and passed by the elevator on the next floor, the elevator had only just started resuming its descent.  
  
It was then that she bumped shoulders with someone.  
  
"Excuse me..." Maya said with a short bow.  
  
 _"Wurgle murgle!"_ came the reply.  
  
"eh?" Maya stopped.  
  
Slowly, she turned around, and then came face to face with one of the small tentacle eyeballs that was floating in mid air- cloak removed due to the sudden contact.  
  
 _"Kura?"_ The eyeball tilted slightly in the air, as if observing her.  
  
"Kura....?" Maya blinked as she tried to process the sight before her.  
  
And then her eyes went wide as she realized- _**"FLYING JELLYFIIIIIIIISH!"**_ she yelled out in terror.  
 ** _  
"KREEEEEEEE!!!"_** The Eyeball let out a squeal of fright as well- and then popped like a water balloon, coating the entire hallway in a green, LCL-like substance.  
  
Maya was unfortunate enough to have had her mouth open- and the sudden explosion had ended her frightened scream.  
  
A moment passed in silence before she spat out the green gunk from her mouth. Then she took a deep breath.  
  
"WHAT THE HELL WAS _ **THAT!?"**_

* * *

 _SLAP!_  
  
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?" Touji yelled as he clutched at the red mark that had just been added to his cheek.  
  
"For being such a nuisance!" Hikari yelled out in return. "What prompts you to say such disgusting things anyways!?"  
  
The whole public display of anger was rightly enough to make most of their fellow classmates head off in a different direction from that main one that those two were on.  
  
For a few moments, those two continued to argue until Hikari glanced around mid-rant. "And for another thing...!" She then lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "Annnd I think they're gone now."  
  
"Thank god," Touji rubbed at his cheek. "You hit hard when you're acting, you know."  
  
"Sorry, I didn't mean it that hard," Hikari frowned, and pulled Touji's hand away to look at it. "But you know how everyone would react if they knew..."  
  
"Ugh...tell me about it..." Touji sighed.  
  
"If everyone knew what?" Kensuke asked suddenly, having appeared next to them from seemingly out of nowhere.  
  
"!!!!!!" Touji and Hikari both let out shrieks of surprise and both put hands over their hearts at the sudden shock.

"Kensuke! What- How did you even...!?" Hikari was flustered to the point of not being able to say much else.  
  
"Dude, you gotta stop sneaking up on people like that!" Touji lamented, moving his hand from his heart up to his forehead. "Going to give us all heart attacks if you keep that up..."  
  
"Heh, sorry," Kensuke may have sounded sincere, but the flash of light over the lenses of his glasses said otherwise.  
  
"What are you doing out here anyways?" Hikari finally managed to put together a solid sentence. "I thought you left already."  
  
"Oh, right, I did, but then I realized I'd forgotten my phone charging in my desk," Kensuke held up said object. "So I came back." He then looked the two of them over and then asked, "So, what happened with you two?"  
  
"That's class business, Kensuke!" Hikari was going to say that, but only got to "class" before several loud shrieks of terror filled the air.  
  
"RUN! IT'S ANOTHER ONE!!!"  
  
Those three teenagers looked up into the sky as the giant eyeball in the sky opened up all but one of it's smaller eyes- and waved its tentacles about as it let out a warbling war cry.  
  
Touji's mouth unhinged slightly, "Oh Shii-"

* * *

 

 **_A.T. FIELD DETECTED! CODE BLUE CONFIRMED! FOURTH ANGEL IDENTIFIED!_**  
  
"The Fourth Angel!?" Ritsuko ran up to the nearest monitor to observe the image of the tentacle and eyeball Angel that had appeared above Tokyo-3. "What the hell is that thing, Cthulu's lost cousin??"  
  
"Get Unit-01 prepped for launch NOW!" Misato barked the order- "And Someone get Unit-00's batteries put back in! I want that Eva ready to sorte incase Unit-01 needs backup!"  
  
"On it!" Some technicians replied as one, racing off to do just that.  
  
"Shinji," Misato spoke into her microphone, "we're going to launch Unit-01 into battle. I hope you've got another miracle to pull out for us."  
  
_"We'll see,"_ Shinji replied.

* * *

The Fourth Angel that had appeared did not match the images painted in the scrolls, Gendo knew that in a heartbeat.  
  
"So," he ventured aloud, "they've changed the game plan."  
  
The Angel seemed to be waiting for something- as it wasn't attacking the city beneath it, even as NERV activated the defenses and shifted the City into Battle Mode, retracting most of the non-essential buildings down into the GeoFront.  
  
No, the Angel seemed to be....watching?  
  
He pulled up a Microphone and pressed a button to speak to the base, "Fourth Angel has been Codenamed 'Watcher,' use as appropriate."  
Yes, the Watcher, that was definitely what it was doing. Watching. Waiting.  
  
The Angels had sent a spy, it seemed.

* * *

Unit-01 was rocketed upwards towards the City above.  
 _  
'I think blue and orange is a nice combination,'_ The Evangelion's thoughts could be read like that.  
 _  
'We'll have to try everything though, just to be sure,'_ Shinjis reply was the mental image of him standing on the Eva's shoulder as he switched through different color-schemes.  
  
With a jerk- Unit-01 reached the City's surface.  
  
"One of these days, we've really got to invent something better to get us up here," Shinji grumbled. "Maybe a teleport or something..."  
  
_"Teleports, Shinji?"_ Ritsuko asked. _"If we could teleport, then the umbilical cable would snap."_  
  
Shinji looked back over the Eva's shoulder towards the plug sticking out of its back. "Why do we have that thing anyways?"  
  
_"Because the Eva can only run on battery for so long, and the batteries are emergency use only,"_ Misato explained.  
  
 _'Note to self,'_ Shinji thought, _'find someone who can make longer lasting giant robot batteries. Preferably rechargeable ones._ '  
  
Unit-01's reply felt like an honest laugh with a friendly smile.  
  
A laugh that was cut short and a smile turned into a frown as soon as they laid eyes on the giant eyeball of an Angel floating high up above them.  
  
"Alright, so what's this guy's deal?" Shinji asked. "He's not attacking."

* * *

"That's why we've code-named him the Watcher for now," Misato replied. "We aren't sure what it's intentions are yet, but with that many eyes, it can't be good."  
  
(Ritsuko turned her attention to the slim covered Maya, who had just silently returned. "What happened to you?"  
  
Maya's response was a mumbled, "Mean ol' eyeball exploded in my face.")  
  
_"So do I wave at it?"_ Shinji asked. _"Do I offer it a welcome basket?"_  
  
"Try the pallet gun," Misato recommended. "Let's serve up this nightmare a breakfast it'll never forget!"

* * *

"One early-bird special coming right up..." Shinji replied as he and Unit-01 drew their Pallet Gun from their right shoulder, aiming upwards at the giant eyeball.  
  
It looked at him in an amused way.  
  
 **BANG!**  
  
A car sized shell-casing hit the pavement behind Shinji as an equally car-sized bullet flew upwards at the Angel....  
  
 ** _PTHOOM!_**  
  
...Only to be flattened against a glowing orange hexagon of energy.  
  
"What the what now?!" Shinji's eyes widened in surprise.

* * *

"HAH!" Ritsuko put a high-heel wearing foot onto a keyboard as she threw her fist into the air in victory. " _ **I KNEW IT!"**_  
  
"Uh...Miss Akagi?" Maya tugged at the doctor's lab coat. "You're impaling that poor keyboard to death."  
  
"Shinji," Ritsuko took the microphone away from Misato, and completely ignored Maya's continued tugging. "That was an A.T. field!"

* * *

_"The Angels are able to deploy them as shields, weapons- basically whatever they can imagine,"_ Ritsuko continued on even as Unit-01 took an uneasy stance as they looked up at the Angel. _"And that's why we need the Evangelions. They're specifically designed to nullify the Angels' own fields by producing their own counter A.T. field."_  
  
"What does A.T. stand for?" Shinji gulped. "Absolute Terror?"  
  
_"Close. It's Absolute Territory, actually,"_ Ritsuko replied. _"It's basically the Angel's own sense of personal space twisted about to shape the reality around it."_  
  
"So you're telling me that Angels are _**Reality Warpers?!"**_ Shinji's eyes widened.

* * *

"But only within a local space," Ritsuko continued on, leaning onto the table, and digging her foot deeper into that poor keyboard. It gave off sparks of pained protest, and a few cracks of displeasure. Maya and Misato both just looked on in concern. "And the Eva's can nullify that with their own, like I just said!"

* * *

"So I have to shut down it's field before I can attack it?" Shinji asked. "What a bunch of lousy cheaters!"  
  
The Angel growing tired of watching the Eva just stand there, turned to look around. This one clearly wasn't a threat.

* * *

"Crap!" Makoto yelled out, "It's turning towards one of the attack shelters!"  
  
"It's what!?" Misato turned around in horror.

* * *

The Fourth Angel's largest eye settled on a small building near a small park.  
  
There were people running for the entrance even now.  
  
The Angel's body suddenly spun rapidly, as if winding itself up like a top, curling its arms around it like they were some kind of cocoon.  
  
_"ENERGY SPIKE DETECTED!"_  
  
Then the Angel reversed it's spin- unshielding it's main eye as it let loose a giant blast of lightning green light at the shelter....!  
  
A certain trio of students, the last ones to not get to the shelter's entrance, looked up in horror as they saw their impending deaths loom...!  
  
 _ **KRERAAAHHM!**_  
  
...Only for the Eva to dive into the line of fire and shield them and the entrance to the shelter from the incoming energy blast.  
  
It was a futile effort, really. A desperate attempt to block an attack like that with nothing but the armor on the Eva's back was doomed to fail, after all.  
  
"Gnnnh...!" Shinji grit his teeth, eyes closed as he waited for the pressure on his back to transform into a searing heat...  
  
But then it didn't.

* * *

  
"Unit-01...!" Someone cried out in surprise, after all eyes had gone to view the battle.

* * *

It was doomed to fail, after all, as the attack never reached the Eva's body.  
  
Instead? The attack was being blocked and absorbed by a whole dome of radiant orange hexagons that interlocked into a force-shield that served as the shield that Shinji had imagined.  
  
_"Unit-01 has deployed A.T. field!"_

* * *

_"Unit-01 has deployed A.T. field!"_  
  
Shinji's eyes opened a crack, and then he saw just who those three were down below.  
  
Was it any surprise that it was Kensuke, Touji, and HIkari?  
  
"Misato, where's the safest place in the city right this moment?" Shinji asked suddenly.

* * *

"Probably right inside the Eva?" Misato replied, "But if you're thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing then there isn't any time for that!"  
  
_"Second safest is the shelter then?"_  
  
"As long as you keep the angel away from it, it should be," Misato nodded.  
  
_"Got it,"_ Shinji replied.

* * *

 

The Angel's laser eye beam shut off after a moment more of continuous attack. It seemed curious to see what happened next, and made it's A.T. Field visible in response to Unit-01's.  
  
_"Get inside!"_ Shinji's voice boomed out of the Eva's speakers even as the giant robot began to stand up to turn around, startling those three into action.  
  
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Touji grabbed Hikari's hand and began to pull her towards the entrance. "Kensuke, are ya comin or--!?"  
  
The boy had disappeared somewhere, probably into the shelter already.  
  
"Nevermind then!"

* * *

 

"Alright, then," Shinji closed his eyes, and thought to the Evangelion, _'Let's use that song, alright?'_  
  
The responding thought was a nod, and a cue to play that [certain song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m86nMHfvl7s)  
  
 __(Ooga-chaka ooga-ooga)_  
_  
The Angel floated backwards slightly- eyes screwing up as the strange noise assaulted its 'ears', or lack thereof.  
  
 __(Ooga-chaka ooga-ooga)_  
_  
Inside the entry plug, Shinji mouthed along, eyes closed as he tapped his fingers against the hand-controls for the Eva.  
  
 __(Ooga-chaka ooga-ooga)__

* * *

Rei stood ready near Unit-00, looking up faintly towards a speaker that was putting out the same music.  
  
 __(Ooga-chaka ooga-ooga)_  
_  
"This should be interesting..." Rei mused, and ran off to find a screen showing the battle.

* * *

 __(Ooga-chaka ooga-ooga)_  
  
_"I Can't stop this feeling,"_ _ Shinji began to sing.  
  
 __(Ooga-chaka ooga-ooga)_  
  
_"Deep Inside of me..."__  
  
With the _ _(Ooga-chaka ooga-ooga)_'_ s looping, Unit-01 got up from it's previous, awkward stance, and entered something akin to a crouch.  
  
 __"Girl, you just don't realize... What you do to me..."__  
  
Unit-01's A.T. field pushed forwards, clashing suddenly with the Angel's and then pushing through it, destabilizing the Angel's defenses with an ease that caught the Angel off guard. For a moment, panic flashed through the Angel's main eye.  
  
 __"When you hold me, in your arms so tight,"__ Shinji slowly brought his head up to level with the Angel's, and opened his eyes, __"You let me know, everything's all right..."__  
  
And then with a quick breath, Shinji's mouth broke into a smirk.  
  
 ** __"AAAAAAAAH~"__** The Two fields neutralized each other with a massive POP **__"AAAAAAH~"__** Misato's eyes widened in surprise. **__"AAA~'M~"__** Unit-01 leaped suddenly at the Angel on the double pound, **__"HOOKED ON A FEELING!"__**  
  
The Angel let loose a squeal of terror as Unit-01 suddenly grappled with it's lowest tentacles and dragged it boddily down from it's high perch in the sky down towards the ground with a massive THWUNKG.

 __"I'm High On Believing!"__ With a draw of their Pallet Gun, they let off a shot that actually hit the angel in one of it's smaller eyes. __"That you're in Love with me!"__ And then they let off a series of shots in time with the music.  
  
The Angel squealed in dismay and quickly rolled along the city streets in an attempt to fling Unit-01 away.  
 _  
_"Lips as sweet as candy, It's taste is on my mind..."__ Shinji continued to sing on along with Unit-01 even as they held on tight with one hand, feet planted firmly in the ground and instead of being flung, Unit-01 was dragged along the ground for a few building lengths by the angel's attempt of getting rid of them. __"Girl, you've got me thirsty, for Another, Cup a' Wine!"__  
  
They let go, and then drew their Prog. Knife from the other shoulder, and began to dual wield with a knife and gun strategy.  
 _  
_'Got a bug from you, girl, but I don't need no cure,"__ With a swing and a slash, the Eva cut off the tip of one of the Angel's tentacles. __"I just stay a victim, if I can for sure..."__ They then dropped the gun with one hand, leaving it free to dangle from their wrist by a hyrdo-electric cable, and then grabbed another tentacle before the Angel could get any further away. __"All the good love, when we're all alone. Keep it up, girl, yeah, You turn Me On!"__ They slashed and diced at the Angel, keeping it at close enough range that it couldn't really do much but lash out wildly with it's tentacles, which really made it that much easier to cut the damned things off.  
  
The Angel then took the chance to let off an eye-beam without the proper charge up first.

 _ **_"AAA~AAA~AAAH'M"_**_ They slashed with the Prog knife, bisecting the weakened blast as it went at them, and then they let go of that one tentacle arm and-- **__"HOOKED ON A FEELING!"__** SHICK! They stabbed the Prog Knife into the Angel's main eye, causing it to shriek and reel backwards, seemingly wrenching the knife out of the Eva's grip.. _._"I'm High on Believing, that you're in love with meee!"__ ...But in reality they had let go to grab the Pallet Gun again and **BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! _BANG! BANG!_**  
  
The Angel was sent flying backwards a bit from the repeated blows, but it took the opportunity to raise up into the air a bit...  
  
Likewise?  
  
"Let's take this thing down!" Taking advantage in a lull in the lyrics, Shinji quickly sent a burst of an image to Unit-01, who understood their next actions perfectly and sent a confirmation thought of a nod.  
  
They leaped up- grabbing one of the Angel's remaining tentacles, and using its wild motion to swing themselves up onto the Angel's back, well within easy reach of the knife they'd stabbed into the Angel's main eye.  
  
The Angel bucked as they grabbed at the knife, and dragged it upwards and back towards them, all while still holding onto the Angel's tentacle arm for support. The giant eyeball had no clue what was happening to it, but it was painful.  
The _Ooga-Chaka_ 's began looping again.  
 _  
_"All the good love,"__ they'd split the Angel open enough that they could see through to the center, __"when we're all alone,"__ There was something shimmery and red and crystalline. __"Keep it up, Girl, yeah, you turn me On..."__  
  
They let go of the tentacle, swung once to grab hold of their linked gun yet again, and them aimed straight into the Angel's body.  
 **_"AAAAAAAA~AAAAAAAA~AAAAH'M"_** They let off two shots to the music. **_"HOOKED ON A FEELING!"_**  
  
The Fourth Angel yelled out in surprise as the car-sized bullets impacted it's fragile core and sent cracks radiating through the structure. It lost it's faint hovering ability- and crashed back down towards the city streets below.  
  
 _ **_"I'm High on Believing!"_**_ They tore the knife out, and then stabbed it back into the Angel, striking the core yet again and causing it to let out flares of red light even as green slime went flying everywhere from the wound. _**_"That You're In Love With Meeeee!"_**_ The Angel shook violently- trying to get them off- it tried to use it's remaining tentacles to push itself back off the ground into the air. _**_"I Said I'm Hooked On a Feeling!"_**_ They took aim with the Pallet gun again and fired at the Core. _**_"And I'm High on Believing...!"_**_  
  
The red core shattered- split clean in two from the repeated blows- and then the Angel fell to the ground with a trembling moan, all light in it's eyes going dark.  
  
Unit-01 slid off of the Angel's back, and unsteadily regained their balance as the song wore down to a close, and those intact eyelids of the Angels did as well.  
  
The rest of the beast just lay there, mangled beyond near recognition.  
  
With a few panting breaths, Shinji closed his eyes and then casually remarked, "There, bagged you a body this time, Doc."

* * *

Meanwhile, hanging upside down from the top most branches of a tree, was Kensuke Aida. He held no camera in his hand, but his right eye gleamed faintly with a red glow that disappeared almost the instant it was noticeable to us. "Well, that's going to make a nice video," he said with a grin. "I wonder how many views this one'll get?"

* * *

 _ **_"THAT WAS NOT THE FOURTH ANGEL DESCRIBED BY THE SCROLLS!"_**_ The obelisk with the whining, grating audio problems yelled.  
  
_"Relax, would you?"_ One of the newer, active obelisks replied with a casual tone. _"It was very clearly an infiltration unit. Gendo's codename was very appropriate."_  
  
_"The Angels were never meant to deviate!"_ another of the newer obelisks ranted. _"Ikari's plan has failed and--"_  
  
"And we were _Never_ completely sure the Angels would follow the path described in the first place," Gendo spoke aloud for the first time in the five minutes that followed the Fourth Angel's death. "The Angels are living creatures such as ourselves. To think we could control, or predict, their actions was a folly on our part."  
  
That common sense Obelisk, out of all twelve that were only rarely all active at the same time, spoke then, "Gendo is right, much as you all hate to admit it. It was foolish on our part to believe that the Angels would conform to our plans. We had no real evidence to support it but our own wishful thinking. We will need to reevaluate the plan if we are to progress towards Instrumentality."  
  
"Agreed," One of the only other obelisks agreed with a deep voice. "Gendo, you are dismissed. We will call again once we have taken stock of our plans."  
  
"I will wait until then," Gendo gave a short bow, and all of the Obelisks went dark. Then, he added, "May it take you until the end of the world."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :33 Anyone else hungry? Or is it just me?


	4. Slow Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NERV attempts to get Unit-00 brought online.

The night after the Fourth Angel battle, Misato Katsuragi had been under the impression that Shinji would be too tired the next morning to sing, and so assumed she would be able to sleep in.  
  
She was both right and wrong with that assumption, mostly due to the fact that Shinji had apparently bought a set of external speakers for his Walkman.  
  
Misato hadn't even woken up just minutes before like she had the day before. No, instead she was woken up to the full, high definition sound of a [certain _Jackson 5_ song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK43G0HGGmw)  
  
"Craaaap," Misato groaned as the next week began to flash before our eyes in a music montage!

* * *

Synch Tests for the two Pilots, mainly just seeing how well Shinji and Unit-01 worked together in comparison to how Rei and Unit-00 refused to work together.  
  
The Eva would try trashing in it's restraints whenever Rei tried to synchronize. It just refused to work without any common ground.  
  
And so they had reluctantly tried Shinji's idea of playing music to the Eva through those external speakers he had bought.  
  
It was somewhat disturbing to watch Unit-01's head sway to the music even in low-power mode while Shinji was outside of the plug.

* * *

No school for their first day post attack, the corpse of the Angel was still lying in the city streets making a giant stink as they tried to cart it somewhere else.  
  
Misato rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "And tell me again why the tractor trucks won't haul it?"  
  
"Er..." Maya glanced to the side as she tried to hide behind her clipboard. "They say it exceeds their maximum weight limit?"

* * *

 

  
Progress on making Unit-00 work with Rei was slow, and tiring for the Pilots, and as they'd returned to the apartment after their first full day of Synch Tests, both Rei and Shinji had practically collapsed onto the couch after making it inside.  
  
Maybe tomorrow she could sleep in?  
  
Misato went to bed early, although she did grab the beer that Pen pen offered her as she walked past.

* * *

The next morning, Shinji and Rei were already both up and wide awake by the time the music started again.  
  
This time Shinji asked Misato what she wanted for breakfast.  
  
The tired commander just stared blankly at the pilots, and wondered how they could be so energetic this early in the morning.

* * *

  
"SONG LORD!" The Class of students yelled out in greeting as Shinji and Rei made it to the classroom.  
  
"Er...Hi?" Shinji blinked, not quite sure what had brought them all around.  
  
"You gotta see this!" Hikari was on a ranting and raving mode as she brought the Pilots over to look at Kensuke's laptop, which was showing a YoVid video that someone had posted of the Fourth Angel battle. "They edited out the really awesome part of you saving the shelter though! That really gets on my nerves that they cut that part off! You were so heroic!"  
  
"At least everyone's getting the lyrics right this time," Touji seemed content, for the moment at least.

* * *

"Where are the pilots?" Misato asked with a huff as she checked her watch.  
  
"Elevator said they were in as of ten minutes ago," Ristsuko shrugged. "They're probably taking their time to get ready for today's tests..."  
  
"Or they could be on Unit-01's shoulder," Makoto said simply, pointing out the window of the observation deck towards Unit-01, where, indeed, Shinji and Rei were walking on the Eva's shoulder with buckets of paint in one hand, and...  
  
"Are those rope climbing harnesses!?" Misato's eyes went wide.

* * *

 

Misato ran out towards them, "Shinji! Rei! Just what do you think you're doing!?"  
  
"We're going to give Milano victory tattoos!" Shinji replied, holding up the buckets of paint. "Blue for the background, orange for the designs!"  
  
"Who's Milano?" Misato asked.  
  
"Unit-01's preferred name," Rei replied. "Shinji says they decided on it during yesterday's synch tests."  
  
"You- What!?" Misato just stared on.  
  
"Also! Do you think maybe we could get more paint?" Shinji asked. "These buckets were all we could find in the garage, and they're pretty light as it is...."  
  
Misato was going to protest when a voice cracked over the intercom then- and not just any voice, but Gendo Ikari's voice.  
  
_"I will appropriate the necessary amounts of blue and orange paint for Unit-01."_  
  
"Cool! Thanks, mysterious voice!" Shinji waved at a camera, completely unaware that it was his father that had been speaking.  
  
Misato's right eye twitched.

* * *

 

  
"Well, why don't we try a cross synchronization?" Ritsuko offered the suggestion as she watched Shinji and Rei paint over the "Unit-01" Decal on the Eva's shoulder with blue paint. "Maybe Shinji will have better luck getting Mr. Orange Creamsickle to listen so we can get Rei in there proper."  
  
"At the very least, we could see how well Rei synchs with Milano," Maya agreed with a nod.  
  
"Not you too, Maya!" Misato lamented.  
  
"Agreed," Ritsuko nodded. "Milano's definitely is the calmer Eva of the two, Rei might be safer in her for the time being."  
  
"It's too early in the day for me to want to be drunk...!" Misato sauntered off to find the cafeteria.

* * *

The first completed glyph was a stylized bird-mask that looked a lot like the Third Angel's main defining trait.  
  
The two Pilots were already outlining a vaguely eye like shape for the Fourth Angel.  
  
Misato glanced at the cup of coffee in her hand and then said, "I really need to get drunk." Or laid. Or, given the way the last few days had been, maybe both. "I wonder if Kaji's in town?"

* * *

He wasn't.  
  
Misato nearly threw her cellphone in the nearest trash can out of frustration.

* * *

The third morning after the Fourth Angel's attack- Misato was woken up yet again by music....this time with PenPen singing along loudly to every song while Shinji only occasionally sang a few lines as he cooked.

* * *

She came into the observation deck for the Eva's just to find a painting crew finish off the last of the Purple and Green paint job on Unit-01, instead making it a uniform Blue body with Orange Highlights...  
  
And those freaking painters had left the Angelic Kill Count on the chest just where the Pilots had put it.  
  
Misato just collapsed into her chair and decided to take a nap- paperwork be damned.

* * *

The Paperwork pile had grown by five times when Misato woke up.  
  
"Who...what....why...?" Misato just blinked tiredly at the paper stack.

* * *

  
  
Ninjas, Misato decided, it had to have been ninjas.

* * *

The Second Child finished watching the internet leak of the Fourth Angel fight for what seemed to be the billionth time (It was only really about fiftyith time). It baffled her mind that somehow someone had gotten a higher quality video of the battle than NERV's numerous cameras scattered around Tokyo-3.  
  
Her fingers tapped against her desk. Two angels down- killed by a kid with no training what so ever.  
  
And here she was. Trained for as long as she could remember to fight Angels. Stuck. In. Germany. Unable to get anywhere near an active combat zone.  
  
What was the point?  
  
Her hand moved to the phone at her desk, and picked it up to dial.

* * *

  
"We'll be doing Cross Synchronization tests today," Ritsuko explained as she stalled her march between Unit's 01 and 00, behind her, Shinji and Rei stopped following and stood at attention. "Basically, we swap pilots with the Evas, and see what works and what doesn't. In case one of you is unavailable to pilot, or one of the eva's is Damaged beyond quick repairs and can't fight."  
  
"Question," Shinji raised his hand, and then, after getting a nod, asked, "what's 'quick repair' damage, and what's above it?"  
  
"Basically? Broken armor, a hassle to replace, but can be done in a pinch," Ritsuko paused. "Anything that causes bodily harm to the Eva, like a missing arm or a leg, that's going to take a long while to fix, if it's fixable at all."  
  
"Okay, so try to avoid losing a limb, got it," Shinji nodded.

* * *

Rei sat herself down into Unit-01's Entry Plug, and took a few breaths to calm herself down.  
  
_"Just remember,"_ Shinji said over the intercom. _"Try to be comforting. She's probably going to be scared a little bit."  
  
"Understood," Rei replied with a nod.  
  
The Entry Plug began filling up with LCL, and the usual chatter filled through the air.  
  
Strangely, Rei found herself tuning it out this time. Usually, the voices were tense, concerned, apprehensive... But this time something seemed relaxed. No, maybe it wasn't that. It was the LCL; it didn't feel oppressive at all.  
  
_"Opening pathways in Three...."_  
  
Rei closed her eyes, breathing deep through the LCL.  
  
_"...Two..."_  
  
Rei felt an itch at the back of her brain- and then suddenly she gasped as her closed eyes were flooded with white light.

  
_"So what do you think we should do for the second one?" Shinji's voice was distant, somewhere below and in front of her off to her left. "Eye, or tentacle?"_   
  
_"Given the reactions I've heard from the staff on the tentacles, I would say an eye would be a better suggestion." Rei was caught off guard by the sound of her own voice. This was Unit-01's...Milano's memory of them painting her armor?_   
  
_Then, Rei was looking out of her own eyes as Shinji nodded in the memory, "Yeah, I'm not really sure how to draw a tentacle like that anyways."_

And then reality returned with a snap back into place with Ritsuko's voice crying out with delight- _"Handshake Established! We've got a 23% synch ratio!"_  
  
Rei wasn't even sure when she'd opened her eyes- but the double vision wasn't nearly as bad as she'd expected it would be.  
  
There was a brushing of a thought against Rei's mind, a questioning probe, but one that wasn't full of anger, such as Unit-00, instead, merely... curious.  
  
"You smell funny...But you're nice enough..." were the thoughts that Rei felt next. Not really words, but more like emotions. So that was what Shinji had meant.  
  
This was what a synchronization felt like.  
  
Rei took a few moments to feel around, seeing what everything felt like through a proper synchronization, even if it was twenty percent lower than Shinji's initial score. Well, that was to be expected. Those two, somehow, had a larger common interest to work off of.  
  
"Shinji's going to be using the angry one next, isn't he?" Milano's thoughts echoed against Rei's mind, and for a moment she had to double check to make sure that it wasn't her own thought.  
  
"He is," Rei replied. "I'm sure he will be fine."  
  
"The angry one is so angry," was a reply. "Always mad. Never happy. Always having nightmares. Makes it hard to rest/sleep."

Nightmares? Rei frowned. What would make her Evangelion have nightmares?

* * *

_"Filling Entry Plug."_ Shinji braced himself for the LCL, and not for the first time, felt himself surprised by the liquid that he could feel even through the plug suit.  
  
If his first experience with the substance was a chilling embrace, this felt instead like stepping into a hot tub that was set above it's safest limits.  
  
Shinji grit his teeth as the LCL rose up to his chest. It was like a really hot bath- the kind that went past relaxing into slightly unpleasant.  
  
It went down his throat in a way that almost made him gag. Blood! It tasted like blood and felt like he was trying to guzzle down a mug of just slightly over-heated coffee.  
  
_"Everything alright in there, Shinji?"_ Misato asked, noticing his discomfort.  
  
"Yeah, just...not quite comfortable in here..." Shinji replied.  
  
_"You want to continue?"_ Ritsuko asked.  
  
"Yeah, let's give it a try, at least." Shinj took a few deep breaths to still himself once the LCL had filled the Plug. It felt wrong.  
  
_"Opening pathways...initiating Link in five..."_ Five? _"Four..."_  
  
And then Shinji's vision of the Entry plug stretched out into a blinding white super nova of light.

* * *

  
"So...you're the new kid who's been playing that loud racket the last couplea' days?" a voice seemed to growl at him.  
  
Shinji's eyes opened, and found himself in a plain white void. It wasn't a blindingly searing white, like the transition into memories were...just white.  
  
Shinji found himself floating in this void, with the only other company with him being the sight of a speck of darkness against the light background.  
  
Something distant was watching him.  
  
"Yeah, I'm Shinji Ikari--" Shinji began to respond when that voice from before interrupted.  
  
"Third Child, yeah, I've heard _aaaall_ about you." The voice sounded sarcastic slightly. "Mainly, I've heard about you through that Eva o' yours. Keeps trying to convince me that we've gotta 'work together' or some crap like that."

"Thanks for trying, Milano," Shinji thought, only to find out that he had 'said' it aloud in this void.  
  
"Hah! You're actually thinking in here, kid." The voice replied as that dark dot seemed to get closer. "Everything's in your head...or rather, in mine, specifically."  
  
And then Shinji felt himself being pulled along suddenly by whatever was inside Unit-00's Core, that dot got closer and closer and closer... and then just as Shinji was jerked to a stop, he could finally make out what it was.  
  
"A...raccoon?!" Shinji stared and blinked.

"No, I'm not a raccoon. that's just how your feeble little human mind perceives my grandeur," The raccoon, who was wearing what appeared to be an orange and white version of Rei's Plugsuit, was also standing on two legs, and had bowed in some grandiose way with a flourish of his right arm. Shinji was about to accept that as fact when the Raccoon just let loose a howl of annoyance that sounded very much like: "OF COURSE I'M A FREAKIN' RACCOON!" he face palmed and began pacing back and forth in front of Shinji. "Good, **_GOD_**. Just what are they teaching you in school these days? Ever heard of 'sarcasm' before? Maybe you should look it up in a dictionary!" As if on cue, a Dictionary appeared with a poof of orange smoke next to Shinji.  
  
"So you're...what? The first test pilot?" Shinji asked, ignoring that dictionary as it began to float along with some semblance of forwards momentum.  
  
"First test pi--" The raccoon's face scrunched up in frustration. " ** _HOW DENSE ARE YOU!?_** " he yelled, arms going wide to the side in anger. "I'm the freakin' **GIANT ROBOT** whose _NECK_ you are sitting _**KNEE DEEP IN!**_ "

 

"You're Unit-00!?" Shinji asked, blinking.

 

"Oh my god do I HAVE to spell it out for you?!" The Raccoon asked, face palming with both hands and resuming his pacing. "Freakin Ikari's. I just don't know what it is with you lot but you're just so...!" He pulled his hands down his cheeks and let out a groan of annoyance. "I did NOT survive Second Impact- getting mutated into some freak'a'nature- and then get stuffed inside a giant robot JUST to deal with you goddamned kids who don't have **ANY FREAKING CLUE** what's going on JUST So that I can play freakin' 'Mister Exposition'!" He then jabbed a finger at Shinji and then accused, "And Just what the hell is it with you kids and barging into my own mental sanctuary away from the pure INSANITY that is our screwed up little blue orb in a sea of increasingly growing darkness??"  
  
"Er...I was going to ask you that myself," Shinji mused, not even noticing as the dictionary completed it's first circle and nearly hit him in the head. "Milano and I usually don't get this kind of thing..."

"Well maybe it's because that girl never had the time to form her own self identity?" The raccoon offered in a slightly condescending tone as he continued to pace. "Or maybe it's because her own mother- Yours too, kid, hate to break it to you- decided that an unborn child was the Best Possible Thing to stuff into a giant robot to give it a soul! Because APPARENTLY--" he put a finger to his skull and twirled it in that ever so crazy way. "--It's APPALLING to put something with an Already Formed personality into a _**FREAKIN' GIANT ROBOT DESIGNED TO FIGHT THE FREAKING ANGELS OF THE APOCALYPSE!"**_  
  
"Wait, you're saying Milano is my little sister!?" Shinji asked, eyes widening in surprise.  
  
"Oh, hey! Look at that! Looks like the kid's actually got some smarts on him!" The Raccon said in a way that sounded like he was definitely trying to mock Shinji. "'Cause. Yeah, in case you haven't put it together yet- these giant robots are powered by sentient creatures," the Raccoon glared. "Now if you'll be as so kind to get out of my HEAD." the Raccoon motioned with a dismissal motion, and then Shinji felt himself being flung backwards at speeds that shouldn't have been physically possible...!  
  
Distantly, there was a voice, counting down slowly, _"Two..."_

**WHAM!**

  
Shinji's face planted itself against the front metal of the Entry Plug as the tell-tale sound of an electrical circuit being broken filled the rapidly darkening room.  
  
"Ow..." Shinji groaned as he tried to pick himself up from the Entry Plug's wall.  
  
_"Handshake rejected!"_ someone's voice called out distantly over the Plug Suit's built in radio. _"Evangelion Unit-00 is disconnected from the grid, removing Entry Plug and draining LCL..."_

* * *

 

"It was a..." Shinji blinked as he tried to remember. "I...I can't remember what the hell it was. It was...OW!" Shinji let out a yelp as Maya placed a bandage over his nose. "I think it was small? And angry. Definitely angry."  
  
"Well, that's consistent with what Rei can remember too," Misato sighed. "Freaking Eva seems to like to suppress memories of the synchronization attempts."  
  
"We weren't sure if it was just Rei not being able to synchronize or not, or if she was losing memories from the failed attempts," Ritsuko looked over her notes. "But since you can remember some small details, at least we know that there's something going on here with the Eva's personality core actively trying to keep things from working."  
  
"What..." Shinji paused, not quite sure why he was wanting to ask what he was. "What's inside the Eva's brains anyways?"  
  
Ritsuko and Misato shared uneasy glances.  
  
"That's..." Ritsuko began.  
  
"Classified," Misato answered briskly. "I'll have to take it up with your dad to see if you're allowed to know."  
  
"Then I want to try synchronizing again," Shinji replied. "I'll keep trying to get through to Unit-00 until I'm told what it is."  
  
"Tomorrow, kid," Ritsuko replied, which made Shinji flinch slightly, much to his confusion. "You need to rest up a bit first. Taking a nose dive into the entry plug's wall like that isn't exactly the best thing for repeat synchronizing. And you don't have Rei's healing factor either..."

"If that's the case-" Rei spoke up then, stepping into the room still dripping with LCL, "Then I would like to attempt a synchronization with Unit-00."  
  
Misato went to protest when Ritsuko cut her off, "Alright then. We'll give it a shot. Maybe you can get through to him now."

* * *

The peaceful silence that came from the battery being removed- allowing for the external eye and ears to be shut off- was short lived.  
  
Unit-00's eye reawakened as the battery was reinserted, and then speakers came on a moment later.  
  
_"Inserting Entry Plug..."_  
  
Damn, they were being persistent today, weren't they?  
  
He felt the giant metal plug enter his neck, and all sorts of connections were reestablished.  
  
The LCL flowed into the plug, and he took a sniff of the pilot...  
  
The girl. Again.  
  
 _Grrrreeeeat._  
  
_"In Five...Four..."_  
  
The Evangelion pushed at the Pilot, to see how she would react. The reaction was different from usual. She seemed...determined? Before there had always been some hesitance...but that was gone.  
  
_"Three..."_  
  
The Eva's singular line of sight of the room stretched out, becoming blinding white as one eye broke into two...!

* * *

And then the Raccoon's eyes snapped open inside his personal mind landscape.  
  
"Freakin' great," he growled. "Gotta go and kick her out of my head again. Stupid freakin' nosy kids. Why don't they get the hint that I can't do their freaky memory share thing... There's nothin' for me to share with them...! Not unless they wanna get scarred for life or ...!" He quickly jumped up into the air as the white landscape suddenly shifted into that of an urban city all around him.  
  
"Damn, she's picked up some tricks since yesterday..." the Raccoon grumbled as he landed on top of a lamp post.  
  
He peered out over the still forming City Streets, looking for any sign of the girl who had intruded into his brain. Hmf. She must be using the landscape as a disguise, he reasoned. But where would she...?  
  
It was then that something hit him from behind and knocked him off of the lamp post.  
  
"What the--!?" As he fell, he looked at the object. The Neural Interface headset? Why had that been enough to--?  
  
And then Rei leaped out from seemingly nowhere, grabbing the Raccoon in her arms and the headset with her right hand in one motion.  
  
"What the fr-?" Before the Raccoon had much of a chance to formulate a reply in the span of a second that took place in the span of a second, Rei had shoved the Interface Headset onto his head.

And then he processed that she was still wearing her own set.  
  
...Was she...smiling?  
  
No. That was a grin. She was grinning like a shark. Why was she grin--? "OW!!" -- she'd slammed her forehead against the raccoon's while they were still flying through the air...  
  
Somewhere in that interaction, the two interface headsets touched, and a spark occurred.  
  
 **FLASH!**  
  
The world rewound from that point, going back to that moment where Rei was sitting in Unit-01's Entry Plug.  
  
_"...three...two....one--"_  
  
Unit-00 suddenly roared to life, shaking in the restraints as he tried to break free.  
  
"LET- ME- GO!!" Milano translated the Eva's words and thoughts for Rei.  
  
_"Someone, break the connection!"_ Misato's voice cried out.  
  
"GO! LET GO! LET ME GO!!! MUST FIGHT...MUST...! KILL!"  
  
"He wants to fight," Rei mused on it, "but wants to fight alone?"  
  
"REVENGE! NEED REVENGE!!! AKAGI!!! AKAGI MUST DIEEE!!!"  
  
_"Disconnecting batteries in Five...!"_ Ritsuko's voice called out.  
  
"What...?" Rei blinked.  
  
"Wait for it..." Milano advised.  
  
_"Four...!"_  
  
"NAOKO AKAGI! REVENGE! DIEEEE!"  
  
_"Three...!"_  
  
"But that's...?" Rei frowned.  
  
_"Two...!"_  
  
"SEVENTEEN--!" And then Unit-00's cries went silent as the battery was disconnected, and the robot slumped back into its restraints, head lulling forwards suddenly as everything went silent save for a muted _"ow"_ over the radio.

 **FLASH.**  
  
'No. No! I don't want to go in!' the Raccoon, inside the cage the elder scientist held firmly in her hands, cried out in terror as he saw the looming form of Unit-00's Entry Plug approaching.  
  
The woman wouldn't reply to his cries of protest. She'd long since removed his translator collar. He wouldn't be needing it.  
  
Doctor Naoko Akagi climbed into the Entry Plug, and rested the cage onto the seat. "There there, Rocket," she said in a soothing tone. "Soon your pain will be all gone."  
  
'It doesn't hurt! I'm not in pain! Let me out! Let me GO!' he protested.  
  
"You will fight the Angels for us, Rocket," Naoko bent down to stare into the cage. "You alone will be our savior."  
  
And then she stood up, and left the plug, sealing it behind her.  
  
'Akagi! AKAGI YOU BITCH! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT OF HERE!!'  
  
The Entry Plug moved forwards, and locked into place. Then, it began to fill up with LCL.  
  
'LET ME OUT! LET ME GO RIGHT NOW OR I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP...!'  
  
The Plug filled with LCL, and a holographic screen came on, showing the outside of the plug.  
  
_"Naoko, what are you doing!?"_ Doctor Ikari was running up on the screen. She looked shocked, horrified.  
  
_"I'm performing the first Contact Experiment,"_ the dark haired woman replied, not even looking up from the device in her hands. _"Unit 00 will be ready, and then there will be no need for external pilots."_  
  
_"You simple minded Idiot!"_ There was a slap...! Ikari then was trying to wrestle the controls from Akagi's hands.  
  
Akagi, though, managed to hit a button on that device.  
  
And then the LCL suddenly felt charged.  
  
'LET ME OUT!' Rocket yelled.  
  
But it was too late.  
  
 **FLASH**.  
  
_"HANDSHAKE ESTABLISHED!"_ Maya's voice cried out in triumph.

Rei's eyes opened, slowly, and with a groan as she tried to adjust to seeing both her normal double vision and the Eva's singular sight at the same time.  
  
_"Synch Ratio is....35%!"_ Ritsuko gasped. _"Holy shit it actually worked this time!"_  
  
Then, there was a groan that echoed inside Rei's head, followed by the spectral image of a Raccoon appearing inside the Entry plug next to Rei as it...no, he, shook his head out as he tried to make sense of "What happened...?"  
  
Rei replied with a thought, "You were of two minds. I made them one."  
  
"...No shit, Sherlock," Rocket grumbled as he shook his head out. "I was trying to _block out_ those damned memories for a reason."  
  
"I..." Rei paused as she felt new memories, or rather, old ones returning to prominence, began to surface. The previous Synchronization attempts. The soul for Evangelion Unit-00 had been splintered, and so had Rei when she had tried to synchronize, if only to a small degree.  
  
"You Ikari's just don't know when to quit, do you?" Rocket grit his teeth. "I wasn't meant to be like this. I was perfectly fine being an angry little fur ball of terror."  
  
"But you are." Rei replied, reaching a hand out for that spectral image in the LCL that she was sure only she could see. "But you couldn't remember why you were angry, and that was lashing out at everything. Hurting everyone who tried to help, in some way."  
  
"What the hell did you even do to me?" Rocket asked, whirling in place to snarl at her.  
  
"I made you remember what made you mad," Rei replied without hesitation. "Now you can focus that anger at the Angels."  
  
 _ **_"Akagi..."_**_ Rocket growled, and much to everyone's surprise, that came out aloud over the Eva's external speakers this time. _"Where's that bitch who shoved me in here?"_  
  
Rei replied aloud this time as well, "Doctor Naoko Akagi is dead."

_"She... _ **What!?"_**_ Rocket replied in suprise. "How the hell is she dead!?" He returned to thought speak then.   
  
"She died the day of the Contact Experiment that put you inside Unit-00," Rei answered in thought speak as well. "Officially, I was told that she had tripped and fallen over the railing when the Evangelion had jerked suddenly...however, seeing your memories of that day..." Rei frowned. "I believe that during the scuffle with Doctor Ikari, she must have fallen, either by accident, or..."  
  
"Or Ikari pushed the bitch over the rails," Rocket chuckled. "God...your family is so screwed up, kid, you don't even know."  
  
"I am not related to Doctor Yui Ikari at all," Rei replied.  
  
"Are you ser--?!" Rocket face palmed. "No, of course you are. Kid, Try looking in a mirror now that you've finished poking around in my head. You might be surprised by what you see."  
  
Rei was going to reply to that when Shinji's voice cut into the Entry Plug. _"Rei? are you okay? What was that voice we heard just now?"_  
  
Rei thumbed on the externals again, "That was Unit-00's soul..." She looked at the raccoon in front of her. "His name is Rocket."

* * *

Inside Gendo's personal office, his eyes widened slightly as he heard that, then he closed them as he started to chuckle. "So that's where you went, you little rascal."

* * *

_"Uh...Hi?"_ Rocket didn't sound very sure of speaking aloud, even though he'd done it just a moment before.  
  
Ritsuko just hung her head and sighed, "There isn't enough coffee in the world right now."  
  
Misato just put her hand on Ritsuko's shoulder in a comforting way, "Hey, we can hit up the bar tonight and get drunk off our asses together."

* * *

Meanwhile, buried deep in the bedrock that only a few miles off shore of Tokyo-3, a few rocks tumbled away as something underneath them stirred...  
  
A Piercing red glow shone out through the newly opened hole, and a thought emerged.  
  
 **~The Oncoming Storm...a Tsunami of Rock.~**  
  
On the other side, a similar set of rocks fell away, revealing another red glow.  
  
Eyes. They were eyes.  
  
 **~The Wait has passed. Patience's virtue upheld.~**  
  
Further away, some of the rock began to stir- something beneath it had started to move.  
  
Somewhere between that and the front, more rocks began to be pushed upwards as whatever had been buried beneath the bedrock began to push upwards.  
  
 **~My Slumber Ends. My Belly Hungers.~**  
  
Suddenly, spikes began to shoot out of the rock, forming the outline of a spine, tracing backwards from those eyes and ending abruptly just before that already tumultuous rock.  
  
Suddenly- a massive drill burst forth at that end, grey with gold spirals, but metallic. Translucent. It spun even as it shook side to side, revealing itself to being the tip of a massive tail.  
  
 **~Yea, though I walk to the Valley of Death...~**  
  
Massive hind legs burst out of the rock face, and the beast began to pull itself out of the ground- the red lights disappearing behind rock as the elongated head withdrew itself from its hiding place.  
  
Rocks tumbled aside in mass as the massive, dark blue scaled- armored?- beast emerged from it's resting spot.  
  
 **~They shall fear me. For my Maw is Wide, and my Teeth Sharp.~**  
  
Shorter, stubbier arms appeared on the front, shoulders absolutely tiny next to the neck that stretched forwards into a toothy jaw.  
  
 **~In the sight of my gaze- I call forth Rostrum!~**  
  
The mouth opened slightly, allowing a surprising amount of molten rock to flow out into the water around it, hardening within minutes due to the water around it, forming rocks that began to float upwards due to their changed density.  
  
 **~Tremble at my Roar. For I Am the Leviathan!~**  
  
The crocodile like beast shook itself like a dog, dismissing the final pieces of rock from its body before it began the slow and long march towards shore...  
  
Towards Tokyo-3.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MEET EVA!ROCKET! Isn't he just an adorable bundle o' fur?


	5. The Count is Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter: The Dragon.  
> Like Father; Like Son.

There was a groan of metal- the sight of a massive body falling to the ground below.  
  
Blood spilled in the streets.  
  
The Giant, Crystalline Octahedron shifted in shape- transforming into the appearance of a giant mouth--  
  
 _ **CHOMP!**_  
  
Shinji Ikari woke up with a start in his bed, in the apartment that he and his fellow pilot Rei Ayanami shared with their mentor/guardian/commanding officer.  
  
It was a familiar sight.  
  
A comfortable sight.  
  
Even if it had only been about a week since he first came to live in this place. A week since the Third Angel. Less than that since the Fourth. Even less since Unit-00 was made operational.  
  
A whole week and the ceiling was somehow the most comforting sight possible after a nightmare about a crystal eating... eating... Something.  
  
"I need to stop watching TV before bed," Shinji lamented before checking the clock.  
  
Four A.M.? Sure, why not.  
  
He got out of bed and quickly got dressed for school, even though he had the nagging suspicion that school was going to be canceled today. From there, he slipped out of his bedroom and into the main hallway.  
  
Much to his surprise, the TV was on, volume set to the lowest possible without being muted, and sitting in front of the TV was none other than Rei herself.  
  
"Couldn't sleep either?" Shinji asked quietly.  
  
Rei jumped in her seat on the couch- a first time for managing to catch her off guard, Shinji noted.  
  
"Yes and No," Rei replied quietly with a shake of her head. "I.... relived some of Rocket's memories. But I'm usually always up at this time on this particular day regardless of my dreams."  
  
"Ouch," Shinji grimaced as he moved over to sit down next to her. "Mind if I join you?"  
  
"Not at all," Rei shook her head.  
  
So he sat down.  
  
It was a few minutes of (Mostly) silence before Shinji asked, "So what are we watching?"  
  
"Digimon," Rei replied without hesitation as a small red dragon of a creature with a giant V-shaped crest on his head roared and suddenly transformed into a much older looking, golden version of himself. "Half way through season two."  
  
"Digimon huh?" Shinji mused. He should have known, given that the creature on screen was the series' Mascot.

The show had somehow managed to rake in three thirty episode seasons of hit-and-miss airings during the many years following the Second Impact. The story was about the adventures of a team called "Fusion Fighters" who did just that, fight the bad guys with the power of fusion. It was a far cry from the card game that had inspired the anime, which had some strict progression of Evolution leveling similar to that Pokemon craze that had started just before the Impact, and ended abruptly just after it. A shame, really, that it hadn't gotten an Anime either, both shows could have potentially worked to the others benefit.   
  
Instead, both were resigned to the far corners of internet cult status, with that one anime only having late-night/early morning repeats as air-filler.

The world would never know what they had missed out on.  
  
"So you're always up at this time?" Shinji asked.  
  
"I never miss an airing," Rei replied sincerely. "They've occasionally added new episodes in at the end of a cycle. Either newly produced or 'recovered' from somewhere."  
  
"Huh," Shinji blinked. "I didn't think you would be a fan of this kind of thing."  
  
"You have your shows, I have mine," Rei gave a faint smile. "If I had the soundtrack for this series, though, that would be one more common theme between us... however they never produced a physical release for this show due to the Second Impact."  
  
"Ouch, again," Shinji mused for a moment. "Hey, Rei?"  
  
"Yes?" Her eyes didn't leave the screen as two Digimon shot together to form a singular golden form.  
  
"When's your birthday?"  
  
She looked at him in surprise, then gave a slightly pained smile. "29th, February."  
  
Shinji balked at her for a moment. "Are you serious?"  
  
"Completely."  
  
"Ouch, times three combo," Shinji grimaced. Even if Second Impact had screwed up a lot of things, leap years weren't one of them.

* * *

Misato awoke not to the recent spree of sing-along-breakfasts, but to the sound of her alarm clock.  
  
"Mrh?" She blinked slightly, confused by the change in pace.  
  
Maybe the two Pilots had decided to sleep in after a successful Activation of Unit-00?  
  
Misato got out of bed and dressed, warily keeping her nose peeled for the scent of breakfast.  
  
Nothing. Strange.  
  
It wasn't until she went for the bathroom that she realized why her two Pilots were being so unusually quiet.  
  
They were watching an early morning TV show- something with a giant robot wearing some rather strange sunglasses on its chest, apparently, for whatever reason.  
  
"Here comes the best part," Shinji said in a quiet whisper. Rei's attention was quickly focused on the screen as that robot grabbed the shades off of its chest and threw them at its enemy.  
  
Then, it was faint, but the TV put out a quiet "GIGA...DRILL...!" and then it's right hand turned into a drill and the entire robot flung itself at it's stunned opponent to drill through it with a cry of "BREAK!"  
  
Misato blinked, then shook her head. "Well, at least I got to sleep in. Maybe today won't be so half bad."

* * *

 

  
It all seemed to be going **_too_** well. Misato frowned as she made her way into work that morning. Pancakes for breakfast, the Pilots getting along and seeming like they'd been friends for years instead of days, and not a single red-light during the drive in.  
  
There wasn't even a Synch Test scheduled for today.  
  
...And then she saw Gendo Ikari out for a stroll in Terminal Dogma.  
  
"Good morning," he gave a small wave upon seeing her, taking his right hand out of his jacket pocket for the motion and putting it back a mere second later.  
  
"Er...good Morning, Sir," Misato, and also just about everyone else, was rightly tensed up. "Is something wrong?"  
  
"Not that I'm aware of," Gendo shrugged. "I've actually had a lack of paperwork on my desk this morning so I decided I'd go out for a walk."  
  
"That's good to hear, Sir." 'Please be one of the good days,' Misato prayed. 'PLEASE be one of the good days.' "If you'll excuse me, I've got some stuff to work on. Have a nice day," and with that, she bowed and escaped for the nearest lab.

* * *

  
"Ritz," Misato knocked on the door to the lab before opening it without even waiting for a reply. "I've got a bad feeling about to--WOAH!! SORRY!" And with that, Misato hurriedly closed the door again.  
  
The less Misato saw of Ritsuko's experiment, with whatever had caused both her and Maya's hair to turn rainbow colored, the better her day would turn out.

* * *

 

  
"Please pick up, please pick up," Misato muttered as a mantra as she waited for her call to be picked up.  
  
_"Yo, this is Kaji!"_ Came the chipper and familiar voice that was definitely not the usual answering message.  
  
"Hey, Kaji," Misato said, slightly uneasy.  
  
_"Misato, hey. Funny coincidence, I was just about to call."_ there was a chuckle.  
  
"Really? What ever for?" Misato asked.  
  
_"I'm almost done with my stint over here in Berlin. The Second Child's petitioned for transfer to Tokyo-3."_ Kaji answered.  
  
Misato gulped.  
  
_"Hey...um, is there something wrong?"_  
  
"Ever have one of those days that just seem to go Too Well?" Misato asked. "Like you get the nagging feeling that things are just waiting to go wrong somehow?"  
  
_"...Yeah, sometimes. Why do you ask?"_ Was the uncertain reply.  
  
"I've got the strangest feeling in the pit of my stomach right now, like a tidal wave is about to hit the city or something like that," Misato answered. "I mean, I saw Gendo out on a stroll this morning."  
  
_"...Crap,"_ even Kaji knew what kind of days those were.

* * *

  
The Fifth Angel's eyes stared out through the surface of the water, red light refracting on the surface wildly from side to side as the monster's breathing caused the surface to ripple.  
  
It's rear legs compressed down...  
  
There was a snort of super heated air bubbles from the monster's nose, causing the surface to steam up.  
  
...And then the Fifth Angel leaped out of the water.

* * *

 

 **_WARNING! A.T. FIELD DETECTED! CODE BLUE CONFIRMED!_**  
  
Misato swore at the sudden alarm. "Kaji, I'm going to have to call you back," and with that, she hung up, only to redial the number for the School a fraction of a second later.

* * *

  
The Fifth Angel was currently on a rampage in the Warehouse district, smashing buildings, destroying things, and just generally being a nuisance.  
_"Setting Entry Plugs!"_  
  
Apparently, though, the Angel also had a bit of an appetite as well. Every building attacked first happened to be ones filled with food stuffs that had been shipped in.  
  
_"Filling Entry Plugs with LCL!"_  
  
Thus, as the giant Crocodile like Angel feasted on a fishery full of mutated sea creatures, there was plenty of time for the two Evangelion Pilots to be brought to NERV, suit up, and get inside the Giant Robots that would "save-the-world!"  
  
_"Ionizing LCL, opening bridge links..."_  
  
Shinji took a deep breath, Rei closed her eyes.  
  
_"In Three..."_  
  
The Entry Plugs began to glow in unison.  
  
_"Two..."_  
  
The Evangelion's eyes began to glow with a faint blue light.  
  
_"ONE!"_  
  
In a flash of light, Rei's eyes opened, and met Rocket's eyes.  
  
In a flash of light, Shinji imagined the image of a young girl turning around to face him with a smile.  
  
_"Twin Handshakes Established!"_

* * *

Misato let out a deep breath she didn't know she was holding in, the Eva's were being moved to their launch platforms now.  
  
"Damn it!" And then there was the small matter of the fact that Gendo Ikari was working in Terminal Dogma alongside some random Technician Someone on trying to observe the Fifth Angel's active abilities. "Can you get the feed back?"  
  
"Looks like some kind of E.M. Interference," The Someone replied, tapping at a keyboard. "Damn it. The Angel's deployed its A.T. field in an active scramble on the camera's wi-fi frequency! How did it figure that out?"  
  
"The Fourth Angel had a hand in that, no doubt," Gendo answered.  
  
"What's happened exactly?" Misato found herself taking in a sharp breath again, this time fully aware of it as Gendo answered.  
  
"We've lost sight of the Angel's movements. It's actively disabled our cameras. We'll be sending the Eva's in blind."  
  
Misato forced herself to breath. "Regardless....we've got to launch before that Angel decides it's done eating." She took the Microphone and spoke to the Pilots, "Alright, kids, we've lost sight of the Angel. We're going to launch you with the assumption that it hasn't moved from its previous position. If we're wrong, well..."  
  
_"We'll improvise,"_ Shinji answered. _"Like always."_  
  
"Good luck out there," Misato said, then took a calming breath before ordering, "EVA, LAUNCH!"

* * *

The Fifth Angel sniffed at the air- smoke billowing from its nostrils as it smelled the scent of a certain.... _tasty_ snack.  
  
Fast approaching, from....below?  
  
The Angel turned, and looked as a small building nearby split in two to allow a giant orange and white armored creature to surface from below ground.  
  
It. _Smelled._ **_Delicious._**

* * *

 

"We've made contact with the angel!" Rei swore under her breath as she and Rocket drew their Pallet gun from their leg-mounted holster, and took aim at the Leviathan just across from them.  
  
BANG BANG BANG!  
  
Everything seemed to go in slow motion as those three shots went forwards at mach speed towards the Fifth Angel...  
  
A grin appeared on its mouth, and it opened wide...  
  
 **CHOMPACHOMP!**  
  
There was an explosion inside the Angel's mouth as it bit down on those bullets.  
  
_"What the Flying F-?"_ Rocket's curse was cut short as the Angel seemed to spit out the molten slag that those car-sized bullets had become.  
  
Unit-00 took a cautious step backwards as the Angel seemed to sniff at them, drool seemingly coming from between its teeth.

_"I don't like the way this thing is looking at us!"_ Rocket growled- inside the entry plug Rei could see his fur standing up on edge.  
  
"Me either," Rei gulped. For the first time in a long time...not even the prospect of being hurt by a Berserk Unit-00 had scared her this much. It was some primal feeling...that of a predator becoming prey.  
  
_"This is Unit-01, we're on the far side of the district, moving to intercept,"_ Shinji reported.  
  
But it was too late.  
  
The Fifth Angel opened its mouth and spat out what at first glance appeared to be a replica of its own head made out of an A.T. field.  
  
The fact that it made the air around it ignite as it flew towards Unit-00 disproved that theory in an instant.

* * *

"REI! DODGE IT!" Misato ordered...but it was too late.

* * *

  
 **CHOMPA- _KABOOOOM!_**  
  
Rei's and Rocket's voices cried out in pained surprise as that phantom jaw closed down on their right arm, severing it at the elbow with a mighty crushing jaw and the explosion that followed.  
  
_"REI!"_ Shinji's voice followed in terror a moment later as he watched, from a distance, as Unit-00 stumbled backwards, sans a lower arm that now lay between the Eva and the Angel as a smoking piece of meat and metal that was nearly unrecognizable as having been a forearm moments ago, save for the mangled pallet gun still tightly clutched in its burnt out grip.  
  
The Angel made a sound not unlike a tongue rolling over lips... although it was impossible for that to be the cause, because the Fifth Angel had no tongue.  
  
Instead, the entire interior of its mouth seemed to be made up of molten, liquid rock, that same energy that it had shot out as a weapon.  
  
The Fifth Angel ignored the wounded Unit-00 and the fast approaching Unit-01 to, instead, simply walk over to the mangled limb, scoop it up in it's strange maw, and then....  
  
 _Flip!_  
  
Tossed it up into the air and-- **GLUP.  
**  
....Swallowed...it.... _**WHOLE??!!**_  
  
Inside Unit-00's Entry Plug, Rei and Rocket, both clutching at their still-intact right arms at the elbow, just stared on in horror at the event that had just transpired.  
  
The Fifth Angel had eaten their arm.  
  
The Fifth Angel had Eaten. **Their. _ARM!_**  
  
And then it burped in a manner that was totally inappropriate to the situation, then spat out the molten remains of the Pallet gun which was only just barely recognizable as such due to the severed cable that had refused to melt.  
  
Shinji and Milano let out a synchronized roar of anger- and they leaped onto the Fifth Angel's back from further away than was thought possible.

The Fifth Angel roared- and its tail began to spin.  
  
Unfortunately for Unit-01, they had landed with their power cable on top of that drill tail.  
  
 **SNAP.**  
  
The Entry Plug went red with emergency lighting as a five minute count down timer appeared in Shinji's vision.

* * *

 

"Unit-01's lost the Umbilical Cable!" Maya reported with a fearful expression.  
  
"Deatch the remains now! Shinji doesn't need to be carrying it!" Misato ordered.  
  
"Ejecting Cable!" Maya answered.

* * *

The power cable's remains ejected from Unit-01's back with a burst of very small explosives- it landed on the still spinning trill and was shredded apart in an instant.  
  
Shinji, meanwhile, focused simply on trying to strangle the Angel from its back- his and Milano's arms wrapped firmly around the Angel's neck in an attempt to crush its airways.  
  
Then the beast's entire body began to glow orange, but most notably, the spikes on its back turned a brightly hued yellow-red.  
  
Milano squawked a terrified observation at Shinji, "Body Temperature is Rising Rapidly!"

* * *

A split second later...  
  
"Shinji! That Angel is trying to burn you off!" Misato yelled in a panic, "GET OFF NOW!"

* * *

  
"Grrr- FINE!" Shinji forced the Eva to get onto its feet on top of the Angel's back- and then leaped off of it into a forwards roll, coming to a stop next to Unit-00. "Now what!?"  
  
The Fifth Angel's body began to cool down again...or rather, it was focusing all of that heat to a specific part of its body.  
  
The tail-drill glowed with melting heat that began to make the air around it turn into a haze.  
  
If the Angel could speak aloud, it would have said the following:  
  
"This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me." It grinned regardless. "But that's half the fun!"  
  
And then the Angel's legs all sprouted wheels on the bottom- and it used those wheels to suddenly spin.  
  
And it spun and it Spun and it SPUN.  
  
It spun so fast that the Fifth Angel became a proverbial glowing disk of light as its tail carved a blinding circle of light in the air, looking very much like a halo that should have been over someone's head.  
  
Except it wasn't.  
  
It wasn't anything that would be floating.

Rei's eyes widened and she watched as time seemed to slow.

She watched as the Angel's drill tail stopped spining, and split open horizontally, revealing a glowing beam of energy that, as the whole of the Angel swung towards them, launched out in a straight line that was sure to cut through them both if given the chance.  
  
Five seconds.  
  
Rei took full control of Unit-00, even drawing upon the pain that Rocket was feeling from his own arm and using that to fuel her next stunt.  
  
Four seconds.  
  
The beam began to clash against a hastily put up A.T. field- and then lost some of its brightness.  
  
Unit-00 pushed Unit-01 out of the line of sight.  
  
Three seconds.  
  
The A.T. Field cracked- and the beam of energy shot through it.  
  
Two seconds.  
  
Rei whispered a faint message that rung out loudly against the moment, making everything seem quiet in comparison....  
  
"I'm sorry....Goodbye."  
  
One second.  
  
Rocket didn't have time to process what that meant when the blast of energy hit Unit-00 in the waist....and then continued on through, severing the Power Cable that dangled behind, and continued on through just a bit further into one of the random buildings beyond.  
  
 **KABOOOOOM!**  
  
The world went white with light as the fireworks warehouse ignited all at once.

* * *

For a few precious moments, Shinji felt nothing. He saw nothing. Heard nothing.  
  
Nothing but the ringing in his ears....or was it Milano's ears that he was hearing that from?  
  
His eyes slowly opened, almost in a stunned state as he first saw the timer- Three minutes fifteen seconds of battery power left. The timer seemed frozen. It didn't move.  
  
He heard his heart beat...or was it Milano's?... slowly. Thunmp........ Thunk.  
  
Then he saw blood....no, it was LCL, flowing in the streets, and between his fingers.  
  
 _Thunmp...... Thunk._  
  
Beyond the massive headache that was starting to build up, Shinji didn't feel hurt.  
  
No...there was...There was a...  
  
 _Thunmp.... Thunk._  
  
And then he saw the legs...and the hips...  
  
Unit-00's legs and hips. That was where the LCL was coming from....  
 _  
THUNMP.. THUNK.  
_  
But how...what...Where was the rest of the Evangelion?  
  
He saw the timer tick down, slowly.  
  
He looked over their shoulder.  
  
 _THUMPTHUNK_  
  
The ringing in his ears cleared enough to hear Misato's voice call out over the radio. _"GET UNIT-00 BACK TO BASE NOW!!!"_  
  
There, lying calmly in the streets, slowly bleeding out, was the upper torso of Unit-00, so far, very far away from the legs that should have carried it.  
  
The timer hit Three minutes, Ten Seconds.  
  
Shinji and Milano Moved as fast as they could while the Angel only Just began to slow its spin.  
  
They grabbed Unit-00 by its still intact left arm, and they _**PULLED**_.  
  
 ** _THUMPTHUNKTHUMPTHUNK_**  
  
They made for the elevator shaft that was miraculously still intact despite being exposed by the sudden explosion, and with Unit-00 tucked against their chest-- when...? --they leaped for the shaft and dove down and down and down.  
  
They didn't notice when the emergency plating was closed behind them, leaving them in darkness save for the emergency lighting.  
  
And then Milano thought, quaintly, casually, as if this were a video game, "Oh this is probably going to hurt, isn't it?"  
  
"Yeah," Shinji replied. "We really should have thought this through."

Faster. Faster!  
  
"What I wouldn't give for some long-fall-boots," one of them thought, or maybe it was both of them. Regardless of who thought it first....an orange hue appeared around their legs.  
  
An A.T. field formed a pair of heel-springs for the Eva.  
  
A pair of giant metal doors came up beneath them quickly.  
  
Would it be enough?

* * *

 **THWAAAAM!**  
  
A cloud of dust flew out of the launch tunnel into the Evangelion Storage room.  
  
The technicians all coughed up a storm, but once it cleared, they waited, and waited.  
  
Then there was the sound of a giant footstep, followed by another, and another....  
  
And then Unit-01- blue and orange paint all scraped up to hell and back- with Unit-00 safely held in its arms, strolled into view.

* * *

 

  
Misato let out a breath she'd held in yet again. She breathed normally for the moments it required her to phrase her next orders, "I want Rei out of that Entry Plug _**NOW.**_ "

* * *

The LCL that drained out of the Entry Plug's half-open door was stained red with blood- actual human blood- and it gave the doctors pause for concern.  
  
Shinji leaped in without a second thought, sloshing around inside the plug to get to Rei and get her out.  
  
"Oh--" Shinji gave a faint squak of dismay. "We're going to need a stretcher in here!"  
  
One had already been brought over, but Misato took the initiative to help get it into the plug.  
  
It was a few precious moments later until they got the stretcher out of the plug, with an unconscious Rei lying on it.  
  
Her plug suit had a growing red stain across her waist, where blood was leaking through.  
  
It made Shinji want to throw up just seeing it.  
  
"Don't worry," Maya put a hand on his shoulder as she watched Ritsuko and Misato accompany the doctors over to the nearest elevator. "I'm sure she'll be fine."  
  
"That was a lot of blood," Shinj said quietly. "Not just on the ground here, but in the LCL too..." He looked back over his shoulder to where Unit-00 lay on its wounded right side, and next to it, Milano was kneeling down, head held low in a silent prayer, with their own entry plug only half-ejected from the Eva's neck.  
  
"Rei always pulls through," Maya tried to comfort him.  
  
"I know she does," Shinji answered. "My concern is how we're going to tear that damned Angel in half for what it did to them."  
  
And there, in that moment, Maya saw a frightening glimmer of light in his eyes.  
  
It was an angry, burning light. A flame that wanted nothing more than to ignite and engulf its prey.

* * *

 

  
The next few hours were very touch and go- not just for Rei, being cared for in NERV's localized emergency room, but for everyone else.  
  
Unit-00 had to be hoisted back into its restraining harness, now having a new purpose for the same job due to various reasons. That job had been left to Shinji and Milano.  
  
They had no clue how Rocket had faired in the attack, or even if the Evangelion's body could be repaired.  
  
The answer was looking less and less like it would be possible.  
  
Section Two Scouts observed at a safe distance away how the Angel began to slowly eat away at Unit-00's abandoned legs, making sure to get rid of the metal restraints and armor before eating at the tender meat beneath.  
  
It was almost like watching someone pry open a crab's shell to get to the meat inside.  
  
Except it was a Crocodile Angel, and not a humanoid being.  
  
Except it wasn't a crab's shell, but the lower half to an Evangelion.  
  
Shinji showered off silently after completing his main task of getting Unit-00's body back into it's cage. With a faint snarl, he grit his teeth, and then punched at the tiled wall.  
  
"Damn it, Rei!" He cried out. "Why did you have to do that for?!"

* * *

 

Several hours after the initial encounter, the Fifth Angel finished its tour of the warehouse district, and moved into the center of the city.  
  
And then... It hunkered down over a certain spot, still stained green from the previous Angel battle, and then the Leviathan's chest split open, revealing a shiny looking drill that descended towards the ground below.  
  
It began to spin- CRACK!- and began to drill into the pavement.  
  
Then- the Angel's body changed. Its rear legs went stiff, and its tail disconnected from its body- flying up and way on a burst of fire from a hidden port. Then, the Angel's torso began to lift upwards, revealing its shiny, open chest cavity, full of absolutely nothing organic at all.  
  
In fact, as it lifted upwards, you could tell that all of it's organics were nowhere to be seen. Not a heart, a stomach, or anything of the sort. Instead? There was just the drill that seemed to be spinning of its own volition, with a strange, eight sided diamond like shape floating atop it with nothing to hold it still....and yet, there it was. Motionless regardless of the drill beneath it digging away into the pavement.

  
Then, the Fifth Angel's stubby front arms folded into the open chest- allowing the front to close up for a few moments while the head and long neck of the Angel shifted down to the left side of the Angel's torso, transforming into an arm.  
  
Then- the drill-tail came flying in, shifting to adjust into another arm- this time the right arm.  
  
Once that was attached, the front opened up again, and a head seemed to fold out from that empty chest cavity, with no sign of the arms inside of it at all. The head locked into place, and then the chest closed up again.  
  
With a final roar- the transformed Fifth Angel stood guard next to the drill, awaiting, neigh, daring anything that approached it to attack.

* * *

  
"This thing is Mocking us," Misato downed a cup of coffee in a single gulp. "First it eats half of Unit-00, and then it turns into an Eva. What's next? The damned thing starts singing at us about death and destruction?"  
  
Makoto had no response except to refill Misato's coffee mug.

* * *

An hour after that drilling had started, it was estimated that the new drill would take at least twelve hours to pierce through the Geofront's armor and reach the interior of the "Black Moon." A place that, Shinji was only just discovering, was much bigger than it appeared, as well as having...quite a lot of other things inside.  
  
For instance? An entire tropical environment, full of animals that Shinji was sure had gone extinct at some point during the last hundred years, and maybe even further back.  
  
"Sometimes, I like to come out here and just look at it all," Maya said with a smile as she stared out over the Geofront from their high view from somewhere above. "It helps keep it all in perspective."  
  
They were presently on a balcony attached to the exterior of a giant 'tower' that stretched from the 'ground floor' to the 'roof' of the 'cavern', which held many, Many Upside down buildings.  
  
Tokyo-3 in Battle Mode- buildings would lower, rotate, and ascend back into place, forming an armor layer that should have been able to keep anything out.  
  
Anything that didn't have more than twelve hours to kill, at least.  
  
A gaggle of geese flew by, and Shinji watched them go past.  
  
"How big is this place?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Well, if you imagine a sphere," Maya said, motioning her hands to make a spherical shape, "and then cut off, say...the top three percent of it, and flatten it, and build a city on it..." She mused, looking up at the roof. "Then you say that the next....say, two percent is empty air, followed by the next five percent being the Geofront here..."  
  
"There's over ninty percent of this place left unexplored, isn't there?" Shinji breathed out.  
  
"There's thirty percent that I'm allowed to know has been explored, even if I'm not allowed to know know what's in there exactly. I'm guessing that there's probably closer to fifty percent that's been explored. Probably different environments like this, all seated on different levels..."  
  
"I can see why they call it a Moon," Shinji mused. "So why 'black'?"  
  
"Oh, that's what the outer armor used to look like," Maya said simply. "This Moon was colored black. The one in Antarctica, before it exploded, was colored White."  
  
"Huh," Shinji mused. "Like chess, then."  
  
"I guess so?" Maya shrugged. "I never really thought about it that way."  
  
"Even with Doctor Akagi's theory about colonization attempts?" Shinji asked.  
  
"I was told that it was her way of coping with her mother's death," Maya said. "She was let in on everything just shortly after that day... apparently the theories started after that." She paused. "But...given everything I've seen since the Third Angel... since I started working with Ritsuko-chan..."  
  
"Chan?" Shinji raised an eyebrow curiously.  
  
"Erm, well..." Maya blushed faintly, coughing as she diverted her gaze away from Shinji. "I'm not so sure about that. It might be true that she uses it as a coping mechanism, but at the same time, I think...I'm fairly certain that she might be onto something. That Angel above us," she pointed upwards. "It Learned from the last one. How you killed it... It made sure you couldn't get on its back and do the same thing. It made a ranged attack that was impossible to stop... They're smart. The fact that there's something here that drives them all to attack us, and not other parts of the world...there's a strategy to this. So maybe you're right. Maybe Ritsuko-chan is right.... Maybe we're fighting the wrong kind of war here..." she sighed. "I don't know..."

"I guess we'll find out when we kill this one, and then the next one comes," Shinji replied.

It was then that Maya's personal radio beeped, letting her know that someone was trying to talk to her.  
  
"This is Maya...er..." she began, flinching as she then went to correct her phrasing to her rank and last name.  
  
_"Hey, is Shinji with you?"_ Ritsuko interrupted that.  
  
"Yeah, he is," Maya nodded, blushing as she realized that Ritsuko probably couldn't see that.  
  
"What's up?" Shinji asked, getting in closer to the radio so that he could be heard.  
  
_"Rei's out of surgery; she's stable, but unconscious."_ Ritsuko replied, and Maya watched as Shinji let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"That's great news," Maya said with a smile.  
  
"Can I come visit?" Shinji asked.  
  
There was a pause, then Ritsuko replied, _"I don't see why not."_

* * *

 

By the time Shinji made his way to the hospital part of NERV's main building, the timer count was down to eleven hours.  
  
Eleven hours to save the world.  
  
Shinji held his headphones and walkman in his hands as he stepped quietly into the infirmary room that Rei was being held in.  
  
And there she was, lying quietly, looking as if she were simply sleeping.  
  
You couldn't tell at a glance that a mere three hours before, she had been bleeding out inside her Plug Suit, looking pale as a ghost.  
  
If anything, he thought, it was strange that her skin looked slightly pinker than it had when she'd gone into the Entry Plug that afternoon. Maybe a result of a blood transfusion? It was possible. But Pink was good. It wasn't pale. Pale meant that something was wrong.  
  
"Hey, Rei," he began quietly, as if afraid to wake her. "I thought I'd leave you a present." He walked over to her bed and fiddled with the adjustment on the headphones. "I think our ears are about the same distance apart, so these should fit..." he laid the walkman down on the small night-stand next to her bed. "I've done some modifications to this over the years, so it should play on a loop once it hits the end of the tape, but if it doesn't you can- er..." He hesitated, holding the headphones still in his hands, and then changed his mind on what he was going to say. "I know these songs by heart now... So, you can keep this as long as you need it." He leaned in and brushed Rei's hair away from her ears, noting for a moment that it felt as if it had been washed recently. It felt wet still.... Well, that would make sense if they'd gotten the LCL out. And with a shake of his head for such a thought, he put the headphones over Rei's head, making sure they fit as comfortably as they could over her ears. "Get well soon... Okay, Rei?"  
  
And with that, Shinji stood up, and, after double checking that the volume was at an acceptably low level, hit the play button.  
  
Faintly, he could hear the headphones start playing "Come and Get Your Love," or maybe it was his own memory knowing that was the song he'd left it on.  
  
Whichever it was, Shinji gave a smile and turned to leave. "I'll see you in a bit."  
  
He stepped outside of the infirmary room, and closed the door behind him a quietly as possible. 'Guess that'll have to do for now...' he thought quietly as he started walking forwards and-- "Oof!"  
  
\---Bumped shoulders with a taller man in a dark jacket.  
  
"Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to--" Shinji began to appologize when the man grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him into a hug. "-Erk-!?"  
  
"Shinji..." the man spoke in a voice that Shinji struggled to recognize for a moment, but once Shinji got a look at his face...  
  
"Dad...!?"

* * *

 

It was ironic that, now of all times, they'd be reunited in a place so similar to the last place that they had ever really seen each other as father and son.  
  
Gendo Ikari looked over Shinji idly as they both sat at a bench outside of Rei's room, both holding cans of different brands and contents as they tried to figure out what to say next. Gendo had, of course, seen Shinji many times since he'd arrived in Tokyo-3, but that had been over computer screens and hidden cameras.  
  
Being in person lead to a sort of...vanishing act of that cold indifference that Gendo had allowed himself to fall into with his work.  
  
"So..." Shinji finally began. "It's one of those days."  
  
"You mean the kind that seem to go wrong in every way possible?" Gendo asked, well aware of the rumors and annoying circumstances that arose whenever he stepped foot out of his office.  
  
"Yuup," Shinji replied, opening the can in his hand- it hissed with pressurized air- then he took a large sip from it. Canned Fruit Juice.  
  
"Yeah," Gendo chuckled faintly, "it's one of those days." He looked his own can over. Coffee. One of the most quintessential things needed in a job like this- better than alcohol, he thought- and they'd stuffed it into a can for convenient access.  
  
"So was it the Angel, or did you just run out of trees to kill?" Shinji asked with a chuckle. It was dry, but there was still a faint twinge of humor to it. Sarcastic, yes, but humor nonetheless.  
  
"The later, then the former," Gendo answered simply before taking a swig of his own drink. Erugh. He grimaced, and quickly checked the expiration date. The date was still good, so it just must have been bad coffee to begin with. Oh well. "You gave Rei your music player?"  
  
"She needs it more than I do right now," Shinji replied. "Besides that, music always helps in times like this, I've found."  
  
"Oh?" Gendo mused, wondering how Shinji could have come to such a conclusion.  
  
"One time Kara-- you remember her, right?" The fact that Shinji had to explain it like that felt like a stab to the heart to Gendo. Of course he remembered his niece. She had been part of the reason that he'd sent Shinji to live near the beach in the first place. Regardless, Gendo gave a nod. "Right, well, one time she fell off of the swing set and broke her leg. So I let her borrow my walkman after she got her cast on...she got the it taken off two weeks early. The doctors swear that their earlier guesses as to how bad it was had to have been wrong. But I know it healed up faster than expected. That's just the power of good music, y'know?"

"It would be nice if that happened again," Gendo replied.  
  
"Yeah," Shinji just nodded, and took another drink from his vending machine juice-in-a-can. Gendo, too, decided to take a drink from his coffee-in-a-can... "So, Rei's my sister, right?"  
  
...And Gendo nearly spat his coffee out, not from how bad it tasted, but from how sudden that question was. "What--!?"  
  
"Like, maybe you had an affair with someone after mom died, and that's why Rei's got a different last name?" Shinji ventured aloud, just absently staring up at the ceiling. "Or maybe she's like some other cousin I didn't know I had, or something like that."  
  
"Wh--" Gendo just balked at the question that his own son had asked him! How did a father reply to an accusation like that--!?  
  
"I'm fine with either one, by the way." Shinji replied. "I mean, Rei's nice and all, but she just...reminds me too much of Kara. In the face, y'know?" He chuckled faintly. "When I saw her in bed just now, it was like...I could remember her. I mean, they're both about the same age, even if Kara's a year older..." he paused, and then leveled Gendo with a look that seemed rather annoyed in a strange, stern way. "Please tell me that Rei isn't Kara's clone. Please tell me that you did not clone my cousin to become an Eva Pilot."  
  
Gendo sighed internally. "I can One hundred percent confirm that Rei is not cloned from Kara's DNA."  
  
"Good," Shinji's strange look softened slightly. "Glad we sorted that out."  
  
"She's actually cloned from your mother," Gendo wanted to answer.  
  
There it would be, out in the open.  
  
But he hesitated too long, and the brief window of opportunity for that factoid closed.  
  
"But all that aside," Shinji changed subjects. "How are we going to beat that Angel?" He took a final drink from his juice can, and then, once it was empty, took aim at a nearby trash can.  
  
"Obviously," Gendo began, "we must disable that second drill. It's the most dangerous threat."

"Getting close enough to land a hit is going to be a problem," Shinji narrowed his eyes, and took a few quick, short test swings to make sure he was aimed up right. "That angel's turned into an Eva-clone, basically." He threw the can- and it bounced off of the far wall, landing on the ground and rolling back towards Shinji's feet. "It'll block anything we throw at the drill, and probably kill us if we attack it directly."  
  
"True," Gendo finished off his own can of coffee even as Shinji picked his can back up. "If Unit-00 were still whole, we could easily set up a diversion. One Eva attacks the Angel's body, while the other attacks the drill." Gendo looked at the trash can, and, he too, took aim for it.  
  
"Hm...On three?" Shinji asked, leveling his own can at it.  
  
"Sure," Gendo nodded.  
  
"Three...two....One!" And with that, both father and son threw their emptied cans at the trash can.  
  
This time, however, when they bounced off of the wall, they hit each other on the rebound, and changed trajectory into the trash can itself, rather than the floor below.  
  
"Nice shot," Shinji cracked a grin.  
  
"I did used to go on hunting trips back during college," Gendo smirked as well. "Although, hitting a bird at range with a rifle is harder than getting a can into its bin..." He paused at the same moment Shinji blinked at an idea.  
  
"Wait," Shinji began. "There's the range things to think about too," he mused for a moment, then said, "the Angel has ranged attacks for sure. That jaw bite thing, and the spinning tail thing... but we don't have that."  
  
"The Pallet Gun is close range," Gendo nodded. "What we'd need is something with longer reach..."  
  
"Like a sniper rifle?" Shinji offered.  
  
"An Eva sized rifle," Gendo paused for a moment. "If Unit-00's personality core is still intact..."  
  
Shinji snapped his fingers, "You don't even need two arms to fire a rifle. Just a hand with working fingers."  
  
"I've got calls to make," Gendo stood up suddenly.  
  
"I've got to see if Rocket's woken up," Shinji stood up as well.  
  
With a shared nod between them, the two Ikaris went their separate ways.

* * *

We now take break in our usual Sound Track to play a music montage of the following events with a[ song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrHmA7wjFu0) taken from Gendo's personal music collection.

* * *

_"You want us to WHAT!?"_ The head commander at NERV's second base in Germany yelled out in surprise upon hearing Gendo's request.  
  
"Send us your Positron Rifle within the next..." he repeated calmly as he checked the time. "Eight hours." They had more time than that, but really, it would help to get things there sooner rather than later.  
  
_"You realize that we'll have to take it apart and ship it..."_  
  
"Yes, please do," Gendo. "We'd appreciate expedited shipping as well. We'll pay for it, even."

* * *

"Sorry, Shinji, we're still trying to stop the bleeding," Misato said as they watched work crews hurry to try to cap Unit-00's exposed innards. "Trying to synchronize is out of the question, let alone starting it up."  
  
"But don't you think that he might fight for his life better if he knew Rei survived?" Shinji asked.  
  
Misato faltered. "Well..."  
  
Damn it, she couldn't argue with this kid's logic.

* * *

"Yes, hi, this is Gendo Ikari from NERV," Gendo paused as he listened to the answer over his phone, then laughed slightly. "Yes, I know this is unorthodox, but I'm going to need to requisition a Quadrupedal Moving Platform from your company."

* * *

The silence was nearly enough to make him think he was dead, if not for the pain.  
  
'Might as well be dead, actually,' Rocket thought with a grimace. He'd felt her die. What a freaking idiot to pull a move like that...!  
  
And then he got power to his eyes and ears.  
  
"Hey! Rocket!" Oh great, it was the Ikari kid, Shinji, yelling up at him from the railing. "Rei's alive! She's going to be fine!"  
  
Liar.  
  
How could someone survive being cut in half on the inside?

* * *

  
"No, this is completely serious," Gendo paused, leaning his head to the side to hold his cellphone in place against his ear while he focused on getting another can of coffee out of the vending machine. "You do realize that your refusal to help could spell the end of the world as we know it?" He smiled, "Yes, I thought so." And with that he popped open the can. "Thank you for your generous contribution of a Space Shuttle Heat Shield, General."  
  
On the other end of the line, NASA's Commanding General just gave a tired sigh.

* * *

"If you don't make it, Rei's going to be really really mad when she wakes up!" Shinji threatened. "Like... I'm pretty sure she'll dive straight into the Afterlife just to drag you back kicking and screaming!"  
  
Hah. That was an amusing though. But Rocket was fairly certain that Rei wouldn't do that....  
  
"And even if she doesn't, I will!!"  
  
...Crap. This kid was serious about it, wasn't he?

* * *

  
"So the Angel obviously has an agro range to it," Ritsuko said, pointing out spots on a map that formed a neat circle around the Angel's current dig site. "Anything that happens outside of it the Angel seems to ignore."  
  
"Meaning we can assemble the Rifle well outside of the Angels' observation zone, and get Unit-00 in place before Shinji begins the distraction," Gendo nodded.  
  
"We're likely going to only get one shot at this," Ritsuko added. "Powering that thing at NERV-2 requires their particle accelerator. We've just just Tokyo-3's power grid, which means that we can't power the Eva's and the Rifle at the same time. Plus there's the charge time..."  
  
"How long?" Gendo asked.  
  
"Somewhere between two to three minutes," Ritsuko said. "I'll need to run test power runs once it's assembled to know exactly." She paused, "Also, it's extremely likely that the Angel will notice the surge of power in the Rifle, even if its outside of its agro range."  
  
"So Shinji would essentially be having to distract it for the entire fight," Gendo mused.  
  
"I'm up for it," Shinji said as he walked into the room. "I'm also willing to help assemble the Rifle to help speed things up."  
  
"If only we could get you to NERV-2 to help disassemble it..." Ritsuko laughed.

* * *

  
Meanwhile at NERV's second base in Germany, a giant shadow fell upon the workers that were trying to disassemble the giant Positron Rifle that they needed to ship over to Japan as quickly as possible.  
  
_"Second Child, reporting for duty!"_ A shrill, female voice came out of the towering, red giant's speakers as it raised its right hand in a salute over its four eyes. _"Tell me what I need to do to get this thing in pieces."_  
  
Some of the workers just stared at each other for a few moments before shrugging at themselves and began directing orders to the Giant Robot.

* * *

The Hours passed too slowly and yet too quickly for everyone's liking.  
  
Unit-00 had stabilized, and would be ready to pull the trigger on the Positron Rifle regardless of whether his pilot was awake or not....  
  
All that it depended on were those key pieces of weaponry arriving together.  
  
Slowly, but surely, it was arriving, just...not in the right order. The smaller parts of the rifle arrived sooner, but the problem was that they only connected to larger pieces that had yet to arrive.  
  
And so, on the shores of a lake on top of a mountain that overlooked Tokyo-3, a pile of parts slowly began to grow.  
  
From that site, they could stare down at the city, watching as the Fifth Angel stood a silent sentinel for its tiny drill that was still trying its best to get through the Geofront's armor plating.  
  
Why exactly, though, it had chosen THAT spot to drill, nobody could understand. It had moved away from the elevator shaft plating (the weakest in that area) to a spot that seemingly had been chosen at random, save for it being the spot that the Fourth Angel had died upon.  
  
But it was a fortunate chance, that was for sure, as it gave them all the time needed to prepare for the final battle.

* * *

 

The Rifle slowly came into shape- more pieces were added and attached properly, all with Unit-01 serving as a means to hold everything still while the work crew went in and attached all the tiny nuts, bolts, screws, and wiring into the right places.  
And soon it was done.  
  
Everyone stared at the finished rifle as they finished connecting it into the power grid with an Eva's Umbilcal Cable- and Ritsuko could finally begin her tests on how long it would take to fully charge.

* * *

Rei Ayanami woke up at the Five Hour mark. Groggily, slowly- her eyes opened, staring up at a vaguely familiar ceiling, with a strange pressure around her ears accompanied with...  
  
"Shinji's Music?" Rei said aloud, which made said boy jump up in his seat next to her.  
  
"Who-Wha-?" He looked around tiredly, confused for a moment.... Had he...Fallen asleep sitting next to her? Rei wondered about that for the few moments it took Shinji to realize.... "Rei! You're awake!"  
  
"I am," She began to sit up, tiredly, limbs stiff and noodle-ly as if she hadn't used them in months. And then Shinji was hugging her. It couldn't be helped- she let out a faint squeak of surprise. "How...long was I out for?" The last thing she could remember was...  
  
"Almost nine hours now," Shinji answered. "We've got a plan in place to beat the Fifth Angel."  
  
Fifth. Angel.  
  
Rei blinked as the memories began to surface. Yes, that was right, she had forced Unit-00 to leap into the line of fire and... "Did I die?"  
  
"Rocket thinks you did, and...the Doctors say you were out of it for a few minutes," Shinji admitted. "But you pulled through," he smiled, and yes, he was hugging her a bit tighter. It wasn't an uncomfortable pressure...more reassuring than anything else. "Don't do something stupid like that again, okay, Rei?"  
  
Rei just nodded. "Alright, I promise."  
  
"Great," And with that, Shinji let go of the hug, then took the headphones over her ears off. "Here, lemme get those for you." He made sure to pause the walkman, and just coiled the headphones cables up around it before putting them both at rest at the night stand. "I'm going to need to replace the batteries after nine hours of use. Haha..." he kept smiling though. "So...did it help?"  
  
"I think so, yes," Rei nodded, though it was the slow nod that came from being tired. "You mentioned something about a plan?"  
  
"Right, well," he paused slightly, "That can wait a little bit. We're still waiting on the most important part of the Rifle."  
  
"...A Rifle?" Rei blinked. "What's missing?"  
  
"The one who's going to pull the trigger, of course." Shinji flashed a grin.

* * *

After having a doctor examine her, and clear her for active duty, Rei was escorted up to the Eva docks, so that Unit-00 could see that she was alright.  
  
"Oh wow..." Rei nearly fainted from the sight of the damage to her Eva. "Poor Rocket."  
  
Unit-00's main eye turned on, looking down at her in surprise.  
  
Then, the speakers turned on, _"You...were telling the truth."_  
  
"Of course I was," Shinji answered.  
  
"Hey, Rocket," Rei gave a small wave.  
  
_"How...are you even still standing?"_ Rocket had to ask.  
  
"Healing factor," Rei said instantly.  
  
_"Riiiight, like that just explains everything."_ Rocket sighed. _"You scared me with that stunt, Kid. Don't do something like that again without clearing it with me first, alright?"_  
  
"Er..." Rei blinked, even as Shinji face palmed. "Okay."  
  
_"Good, now that we've got that cleared up..."_ Rocket, if his external face could have grinned, would have grinned. _"I heard that you got me a giant gun to play with?"_

* * *

"Two Minutes, Thirty Seconds," Ritsuko declared after completing her calculations. "That is how long it will take for the Rifle to charge once we start it."  
  
Everyone looked to Shinji, leaning back against a wall with arms crossed in a serious way.  
  
"What?" he asked.  
  
"Got any songs that run that long?" Misato asked.  
  
" _Ain't no Mountain_ ," Shinji replied, "but we already used that one. I'd rather not do repeats in case the Angels are learning from them." He then added, "Also, I'd rather not henge any bets on ending a song exactly when it fires off. Let's use something that goes on longer."  
  
"Do you have something in mind?" Rei asked.  
  
"I wanna double check first to make sure there's a cue in the right spot, but yeah..." Shinji smirked. "I've got a song in mind."

* * *

Four hours remained before the drill finished piercing through the armor layer.  
  
It was now or never.  
  
They got Rei situated into Unit-00's Entry Plug, and then they hoisted the Eva to the Rifle spot on that four legged carrying platform.  
  
"You know," Rei mused as they were carried along, "If we got rid of the metal bed, we could probably just put these legs on inplace of what we used to have."  
  
"Hm," Rocket mused, "Four Legs would be nicer than two..." He grinned. "I like how you think, kid!"  
  
Meanwhile, Unit-01 stepped to the absolute closest that they could get to the Angel without tripping its Agro Range.  
  
The Angel kept a wary eye on them regardless- staring out from its humanoid head with two cold, unblinking, piercing red eyes.  
  
"Alright, this is Unit-01 in position," Shinji began. "Ready whenever you are."  
  
Milano nodded an affirmative even as Unit-01 moved to draw out their Progressive Knife from their left shoulder, and then reached over their back for the re-purposed Space Shuttle Shield that they had gotten from NASA.  
  
The Fifth Angel let out a growling sound, but did not attack.  
  
Up above on that hill top, Unit-00 was brought up along side the Positron rifle, and they worked their left hand into the grip.

_"Oh.... _ **YEAH**_."_ Rocket practically purred as he leaned Unit-00's eye into looking through the scope. _"This is going to be fun."_  
  
"Unit-00 is in position," Rei reported, even as she shifted in her seat. It felt weird not being able to feel their legs while still feeling her own...and there was the problems with her right arm as well...but their synch ration was holding up well enough for one shot.

* * *

"Powering Down Tokyo-3 city lights," Gendo reported as the lights of the city went dark, plunging the night-time scene into blackness save from the glow from Unit-01's eyes, and the Angel's entire body- which seemed to radiate with a faint heat from its own internal temperature.  
  
"Ejecting Eva Power Cables...NOW!" Maya called out- and Units -00 and -01 were disconnected from the city grid.  
  
["MISSION START!" ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTFIKkuuXGk)Misato roared out in time with both Shinji's cuing up of the song, and the starting of the Rifle's Charging cycle.

* * *

 

  
Unit-01 stepped into the Agro Range, and the Angel tensed up, ready for a fight.  
  
Shinji cracked a grin, "Let's Dance."  
  
They marched towards each other- the Angel's drill revving up for an attack.  
  
Unit-01 raised its shield, and blocked the attack. _"Going to have to do better than that!"_ And then they lunged with the shield, knocking the Angel back.  
It turned its mouth-hand towards them, jaw widening in an attempt to launch an attack...  
  
SWHAM!  
\--Only to get a Progressive Knife jabbed straight into the open maw.  
  
The Angel growled in anger.  
  
Meanwhile, Rei's eyes went to the Rifle's charging level. Not even a whole ten percent yet.  
  
"Good luck, Shinji," She breathed out, as Unit-00 took sight on the drilling diamond.  
 _  
_When I die and they lay me to rest, Gonna go to the place that's the best__  
  
Unit-01 and the Fifth Angel struggled with their position for a moment- drill against shield, and sword against mouth.  
  
 __When they lay me down to die, Goin' up to the Spirit in the Sky.__  
  
They broke off- the Angel revving its drill up and swinging forwards again.  
  
 __Goin' up to the Spirit in the Sky (Spirit in the Sky!)__  
  
Unit-01 dove to the side, dropping the Progressive Knife to the ground as they drew out their Pallet Gun.

 __That's where I'm gonna go when I die (When I die!)__  
  
They took aim, and then... Fired off a few shots at the Angel's chest.  
  
The Angel would have blocked with its mouth- but found that the recently added wound prevented it from doing much for the moment (at least until it healed)- and so was hit in the chest a few times.  
  
 __When I die and they lay me to rest, I'm gonna go to the place that's the best.__  
  
Meanwhile, inside Unit-00, Rei hummed along, "gonna go to the place, that's the place..."  
  
Rocket raised an eyebrow as she got the lyrics wrong, but said nothing as they watched Unit-01 lure the Fifth Angel further and further away from that spinning Drill.  
  
And boy was it mad at being shot at.  
  
It lunged with its drill again, and Unit-01 just rolled backwards through the city, grabbing up it's Progressive Knife again and blocking the next attack with the knife as they turned sideways and let the Angel's own momentum send it stumbling forwards through the city.  
  
 __"Prepare yourself, you know it's a must,"__ Shinji began singing along now, along with Milano as well. __"Gotta Have a Friend in Jesus!"__  
  
The Angel roared- swinging at them wildly with its mouth-hand, glowing orange again, only to get the Progressive Knife thrown into it yet again.  
  
Molten sparks flew out, and the Angel roared in pain as something vital got nicked.  
 __"So you know that when you die, He's gonna recommend you to the Spirit in the Sky,"__ Shinji sang even as Milano echoed with a __"(Spirit in the Sky!)"_ _"Whoa He'll recommend you to the Spirit in the Sky."__ And then they took aim with the Pallet gun again and aimed at the Angel's head. BANG BANG BANG! __"That's where you're gonna go when you Die!"_  
  
_"(When you Die!)"__  
  
Rei glanced at the power levels for the rifle- 80%!? When did that happen?  
  
 __"When you die, and_ **We** _lay_ **You** _to rest,"__ Shinji intentionally miss-said the lyrics as he grinned, throwing their shield at the Angel in a manner that completely confused it. __"You're gonna go to the place, that's the best!"__  
  
As the Angel tried to make sense of the shield coming at it, it failed to notice in the dark as Unit-01 leaped upwards, using the shield as a stepping stone to gain extra height as they took aim with their Pallet Gun and fired at the Angel rapidly.  
  
Then- they landed on the Fifth Angel from above, tackling it, and bringing it down to the ground.

Then, they grabbed the Prog. Knife out of its hand, and turned the slightly melted blade down onto the Angel's chest.  
It made quite a mess, but the Fifth Angel roared in anger and pain regardless.  
  
Its mouth-arm began to glow as it powered up for a laser shot regardless of the damage- aiming straight at Unit-01's head.  
  
Rei glanced at the power readings- 90%! 'Almost there...!'  
  
With Unit-01's legs straddling the Angel, pinning it down, their left arm pinning the Angel's drill to the ground, and their right furiously trying to keep the angel's aim away from their direction, but not at the direction of the hill the laser rifle was in, the Angel suddenly picked up a spike of energy as the Rifle reached its peak levels.  
  
Its head turned in that direction- surprised. It quickly began to try to wrestle its arm away from Unit-01, to aim in that direction....  
  
Only for the Eva to perform a twisting motion that suddenly reversed their positions and had the Angel's mouth arm aiming straight in the wrong direction- out over the ocean.  
  
95- 96- 97...! Rei and Rocket braced themselves for the recoil from the Rifle as it's power levels hit the final bench mark, and they prepared to fire.  
  
They pulled the trigger- and the rifle's components began whining as the power flowed through everything.  
  
And then nothing happened save for the mouth of the rifle starting to glow red.

* * *

  
"Shit! What happened?" Misato asked aloud.  
  
"The Calculations were off!" Maya cried out, "The Rifle's draining more power than predicted!"

Ritsuko paled.

* * *

Thinking quickly, Shinji pushed up with his arms to readjust the angle of the Fifth Angel's left arm to point in a completely different direction...back at its own Drill.  
  
 __Never been a sinner, I've never sinned,__  
  
It fired off-  
 _  
_I've got a Friend in Jesus!__  
  
And then The Positiron Rifle suddenly let out a burst of blinding light that soared straight at the spinning drill's stationary part- and, as it turned out, Positrons flew faster than the Angels' molten laser attack.  
  
The crystal shattered as the beam pierced through it.  
  
 __So you know that when I die, He's gonna set me up with the Spirit in the Sky!__  
  
And then the Angel's laser beam dissipated in mid air as the entire thing- which was still over top Unit-01 still- suddenly slumped forwards as if it had lost all power, its eyes going dim as it made a whining death kneel.  
  
 __Woah, set me up with the Spirit in the Sky (Spirit in the Sky!)__  
  
Rei and Rocket stared down in surprise as the drill stopped spinning, and then fell sideways against the hole that it had made.  
 _  
_That's where I'm gonna go when I die (When I die)__  
  
Inside Unit-01, Shinji just started laughing, even though he had the entire weight of the Fifth Angel's body pressing down upon him.  
  
 __When I die and they lay me to rest, I'm gonna go to the place that's the Best.__  
  
Ritsuko sighed in relief as Maya reported that the calculation was off by only a few seconds and suggested that they shouldn't hit the "Round to nearest whole number" flag when inputting data to the MAGI systems.  
  
 __Go to the Place, that's the Best.__  
  
Gendo just smiled an actual, genuine smile as the lights started coming back on from the massive power drain.  
  
Misato cracked open a can of beer and took a mighty swig. "That was too close for comfort."  
  
Unit-01 barely managed to roll the Fifth Angel's body off of them before the emergency batteries ran dry, and left them locked in place.  
  
Meanwhile, Rei and Rocket high-five for such an awesome finish with such an awesome gun.  
  
Elsewhere in the city, Kensuke lowered his binoculars and scowled. "No way that'll work with it being this late at night. I couldn't see a single thing that happened!"  
  
And in Germany? The Second Child sighed in relief upon hearing the news that the Angel had been defeated.  
  
"The next one is mine though," She promised herself with a grin.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gendo and Shinji are similar characters, it's just that circumstances make them seem different. Get them brainstorming on the same wavelength, however...
> 
> You get a plan to destroy the freaking Super Megaforce Q-Rex disguised Fifth Angel.


	6. Cherry Bomb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing the Second Child.

"We're doing what after school?" Shinji asked, surprised, as he worked on frying up eggs for breakfast.  
  
"You and I are going by air to meet up with Unit-02's shipping fleet," Misato explained. "Ritz has Rei scheduled for a battery of Synch Tests with Milano so that way, while we figure out what we're going to do to fix Unit-00's missing limbs, we still have a working Eva-Pilot pair."  
  
"Makes sense," Shinji nodded. "And Unit-02...?"  
  
"Is officially being shipped in as a counter measure in case we need two Eva's at once like the last fight," Misato answered. "But that's just the legalese of it all. Asuka requested a transfer the morning of the Fifth Angel fight."  
  
"Did you say Asuna?" Shinji asked, tilting his head slightly towards her to hear better over the sizzling of eggs.  
  
"Asuka," Misato corrected. "Langley Sohryu, Second Child. Ritz calls her a prodigy. Before you, she was the first person to properly synch with an Eva."  
  
"So if Rei got Rocket, and I got Milano, who'd they stuff inside Unit-02?" Shinji asked. "Her mom?"  
  
"Her dog, actually," Misato answered.  
  
Shinji paused in his cooking- "Ouch." -he made no other comment than that, however, and quickly resumed his work. "Do I even want to know what happened?"  
  
"Liver failure," Misato explained. "He was getting up in his years even before Second Impact, but everyone over there in NERV-2 loved him to bits. Asuka's Mom, the Doctor who supervised Unit-02's construction, decided to memorialize the pooch in Unit-02's core when he finally started to goIt was a gamble that Asuka could synchronize, even at that early age, thanks to the shared memories...but you know how kids and their pets can be."  
  
"But it worked, right?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Yeah, although we didn't know why it did, exactly, until you came along," Misato answered. "Asuka's synchronizations were the basis for all of our procedures for Synchronization, but we didn't understand that it was a common memory set until recently. Theorized it, yes, but actually understood it?" She laughed. "God, it's funny how we were all stumbling around in the dark like this. No wonder we couldn't get Rocket to work right with Rei for so long..." She paused for a moment. "Speaking of," Misato looked around the apartment, "where is she?"  
  
"Probably still in her room," Shinji replied. "I heard her humming along to my mixtape when I got up this morning, so she probably just lost track of time."  
  
"I did find it suspiciously quiet," Misato remarked, taking a sip out of her coffee. "Hence this ungodly hour of debriefing."  
  
"Really? And here I thought you were just getting used to waking up early," Shinji joked as he deemed the eggs cooked enough, and slid them off of the frying pan onto a plate. Misato's upcoming remark was cut off before it could begin by Shinji's sudden yell of, "BREAKFAST'S READY!"  
  
Rei's bedroom door opened up a moment later, and Misato had the strange pleasure of seeing the First Child wearing something other than a school uniform, a plug suit, or the girl's usual pajamas. Blue Shorts with Shinji's walkman clipped to the elastic band, and a plain white T-Shirt with a red X on the front that looked to be a print imitating splashes of paint.  
  
Of course, had Rei simply been walking out, that would have been the end of it.  
  
Instead, the girl's eyes were half-closed as she nodded her head to the music she was listening to, and was....was...  
  
Misato blinked her eyes and shook her head for a moment, as if unsure that she was seeing what she was really seeing.  
  
"Shinji, am I really awake right now?" Misato asked.  
  
"Hm?" Shinji turned to look where Misato was, and he, too, paused for a moment to stare.  
  
Rei was _dancing_ down the hallway. And, actually, not just dancing either, but was attempting to sing along as well!  
  
" _Heee~eey_... Get it from the main vine..."  
  
Misato, had she been aware of the song Shinji had been listening to on that first day she found him dancing down the streets, would have found the parallel quite strange. Both Pilots, dancing in similar ways to the exact same song.  
  
"Hah!" Shinji just let out a short laugh, and turned his attention back towards his cooking work, what little left of it as it was.  
  
Misato, for her part, just continued to stare on at the hallway even as Rei went past her. And it was that way Misato sat for a good thirty seconds before Pen-Pen waddled over and nudged her leg with an ice cold glass bottle of beer.  
  
Misato's sudden squeal of surprise could be heard clear across Tokyo-3, even at the torn up Warehouse district that would likely remain abandoned even after its reconstruction

* * *

 

One mere weekend after the Fifth Angel's attack, and life had gone back into it's same old dull routine.  
  
Wake up, go to school, go to NERV, do synch tests.  
  
Today the schedule was different.  
  
"So you get to invite two of us to go with you?" Kensuke's glasses seemed to glimmer with sparkles and rainbows and other assorted visual effects. Shinji wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not.  
  
"That's what Misato said after she finished screaming, yeah," Shinji nodded.  
  
"And Unit-02's on a boat? Did she say what kind of boat?"  
  
Even Touji and Hikari seemed concerned for the amount of energy Kensuke was putting out.  
  
"Er, the _Over the Rainbow_?" Shinji tried to remember the name as best as he could.  
  
Kensuke let out a faint squeal, and then fainted backwards into his chair.  
  
"Should we call the nurse?" Hikari asked.  
  
"Nah, give him a minute and he'll be back up on his feet," Touji replied. "But seriously, Shinji. You're allowed to invite us along like that?"  
  
"Yeah," Shinji nodded. "Honestly, I don't understand why myself, but I'm sure she has her reasons."

* * *

Hours later, after school...  
  
"So chances are whoever Shinji invites along is probably our secret Video Recorder?" Maya asked as she followed Ritsuko along the Eva-level Catwalk.  
  
"Probably," Ritsuko nodded. "Honestly, it's a great idea. If an angel attacks the ships, then we get a video uploaded of that fight? Then we know our little photographer is there. If not, then we'll know it's not anyone close to Shinji."  
  
"Right, got it!" Maya nodded as they passed Unit-01's plug, already inside the Eva and a relatively normal synch test in progress.  
...Well, I say "relativly" in the fact that the external speakers were muted. Nobody was hearing the Impromptu singing lessons inside the Entry Plug.  
  
"Hee~eeey..." Rei began, only for Milano to correct her.  
  
"No. Again, the correct lyric is meant to be 'hell', Rei." If the Eva could have face palmed while restrained, she would have. There were just some lyric errors that the girl refused to correct, and if Milano had met Touji, she would have agreed with him on how annoying mangled lyrics were.  
  
"Sorry, but I like singing "hey" a lot better," Rei stuck her tongue out in a childish gesture. "Dunno why, though..." She grew silent for a moment. "Honestly, I've been feeling all sorts of off after that last fight."  
  
"Rocket says you died," Milano's words came with the impression of a shivver. "I expect that kind of experience would change you even if you came back."  
  
"True," Rei nodded. "But...it's the little things. I get things now that I didn't before. Like in this show I watch, they made a joke about baseball, but I didn't get that it was about baseball until this morning." She shrugged. "It just sorta...flew over my head, y'know?"  
  
Milano laughed, then asked, "What's baseball?"  
  
Rei blinked, then cracked a faint grin, "Alright, time for the student to become the teacher."

* * *

 

Meanwhile, in a VTOL helicopter flying out over the ocean towards a small fleet of giant war-ships, Shinji shuddered slightly.  
  
"Something wrong?" Misato asked.  
  
Shinji paused his walkman, and took the headphones off so he could answer. "I just had the strangest feeling that Rei's going to want to put a giant baseball bat on Unit-00 as it's backup arm," he paused for a moment. "And it made me scared thinking about it."  
  
"Rei with a baseball bat?" Touji scoffed. "Yeah, that's a scary thought. Almost as scary as the idea of Kensuke here with Ninja training." He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the glasses wearing boy peering out through the helicopter window at their destination.  
  
Kensuke was practically vibrating in place with a barely contained mirth and excitement.  
  
Shinji blinked as he thought about it, and then he replied, "Touji, I'm going to be completely honest here. I think you're underestimating the image of a giant robot with a baseball bat for an arm."  
  
"Oh, for an Arm. That's completely different..." Touji thought about it for a moment, and then paled. "Yeah, alright, I'll concede my point. That is a pretty scary image right there."  
  
Shinji put his headphones back on and resumed the song where it had left off.

* * *

Within a few minutes the VTOL had landed, its passengers disembarked, and had taken off again without so much as a goodbye.  
  
"Sooo...what are we waiting for now?" Touji asked, as Shinji was pointedly ignoring most everything to listen to his music, and Kensuke was pointedly trying to take in everything he could as quickly as possible.  
  
"For the captain to show up," Misato answered. "And the Second Child too."  
  
"Another pilot like Shinji and Rei, right?" Touji asked.  
  
"Yuuup," Misato checked her watch. "Damn it, either we're early, or they're late."  
  
"Maybe it's both?" Touji offered with a shrug.  
  
It was then that a door, half way across the deck of the boat, was kicked open by a foot wearing a sandal.  
  
It wasn't your average foot either. It was done up in what looked like a Plastic-like stocking that seemed to continue up the leg past the knee and underneath the hem of a yellow sun dress.  
  
Naturally, Shinji's walkman chose that moment to go to[ the next song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdJ3qWlRebg)  
  
The owner of that leg rebalanced, and stepped out. She strolled casually across the deck towards the awaiting visitors to this rather large Ship.  
  
Kensuke wasn't even looking her way, but his glasses had fogged up noticeably upon his sighting of another ship off the starboard bow of the ship they were on.  
  
Misato just shifted her stance towards something a bit more formal, even as the girl that was approaching them gave an almost predatory smirk.  
  
Shinji glanced at Touji, who simply muttered, "That's a Lot of Red." He was, of course, referring to the girl's waist-length, burnt-orange, nearly red hued, hair, which seemed intentionally framed around the girl's neck in such a way to obscure the obvious neck lines of a Plug Suit's collar.  
  
It wasn't working, as Shinji suddenly realized that it wasn't a stocking on her legs, but her actual Plug-Suit's camouflage system set to an invisibility mode of some kind. Her hands were carefully hidden behind her waist, but looking at the elbows, Shinji could see some faint ripples in the air where the Plug Suit's eblow-armor was turned invisible, and was sticking out obviously.  
  
"Hello world," Shinji chuckled as he figured out her game. "Meet your Cherry Bomb."  
  
"What was that?" Touji asked with a raised eyebrow and a hushed tone.  
  
"She's wearing her plug suit underneath that dress," Shinji replied with an equally quiet tone as he stopped his walkman. "Apparently hers turns invisible." It made sense, of course. The Plug Suits were basically power armor that could turn different colors externally; so why not show any colors at all? In certain situations, it would be the perfect way to wear a full-body suit of bullet proof armor underneath regular clothing. "Plus, if an Angel attacked on the ocean like this," Shinji continued, slightly louder as the girl got closer, "it'd be easier just to already be wearing the plug suit and dive right into the entry plug rather than have to change out first."  
  
The girl scowled as she came to a stop, putting her hands on her hips (You could see faint outlines of the hand armor on the top side, continuing up along her upper arms) as she deduced, "You must be the new Pilot."  
  
"Shinji Ikari, pleasure to meet you," Shinji held his hand out in offering of a handshake. "You must be Asuka?"  
  
"That's 'Pilot Sohryu' to you, Sherlock," Asuka scowled, her blue eyes narrowing at him. "How'd you even see that I was wearing it at that distance?"  
  
"The elbows," Shinji held up his right arm, and pointed at his elbow with his left hand. "They were causing ripples in the air."  
  
"Wha....?" Asuka checked her arms as soon as he pointed that out, and then swore in another language that Shinji didn't personally know.  
  
"Oi, easy on the language there, Kiddo," Misato scolded her. "I still know German, even if it's been a few years since I spoke it fluently."  
  
Asuka glared for a moment, and opened her mouth to say something in return when...  
  
"There you are, Asuka!" An older man, about Misato's age, came running up from the door that Asuka had kicked open earlier. "Don't run off like....!" He trailed off upon seeing Misato. "...That..."  
  
"Hey, Kaji," Misato smiled at him.  
  
"Misato," He smiled back.  
  
"Blechk," Asuka then remarked something in German that both Misato and Kaji didn't seem seem to like, as their faces both went beet red a moment later.  
  
"Dude," Touji whispered to Shinji, "I have no idea what she just said, but I agree one hundred percent."  
  
Shinji just raised an eyebrow at what his friend had said. "Uh...Sure..." It was then that he realized that something was missing. "...Where'd Kensuke get off to?"  
  
"Who's Kensuke?" Asuka asked even as Touji glanced around in concern.  
  
"A kid who just got let loose in a candy store," Touji replied with a groan, "that's who."

* * *

Ryoji Kaji, NERV-2's glorified Pilot Babysitter, really wished Asuka would curb her mouth during introductions. But, at least it gave him an opportunity to catch up with an old 'friend'. "Soooo...."  
  
"Awkward much?" Misato whistled slightly as she followed him towards the Ship's bridge, meanwhile Shinji and Touji followed Asuka around the ship in an attempt to find the wayward Kensuke.  
  
"Yeah, awkward," Kaji laughed. "That's one way to put it."  
  
"So, Changing subjects!" Misato clapped her hands. "How was Berlin?"  
  
"Oh, you know, same old same old," Kaji replied. "Thwarted a few potential assassins, watched a few get completely blindsided by their bullets bouncing off of Asuka's Plug Suit-" he then amended when he saw her surprised look- "In my defense, she wasn't wearing it at the time. Her mom was."  
  
"Somehow that's a bit more confusing," Misato began.  
  
"Bad batch of LCL. Doctor Sohryu took an unplanned dunk into the entry plug and came out looking like Asuka's twin sister for a week, we took advantage to throw off some unsavory folk," Kaji explained, then quickly added: "It was her idea, not mine."  
  
"Doctor Sohryu does have her moments, I guess," Misato shrugged. "You ARE going to tell me the full story about that later, though."  
  
"Fair enough," Kaji laughed. "Ah, man, what else was there?"  
  
"Anything that's not classified?" Misato asked.  
  
"Ah...well," Kaji smirked. "There was this one time where Asuka got mad at a reporter who likened her to a dog....Well, take a guess at what she did."  
  
"She didn't start barking, did she!?" Misato gasped.  
  
"Growled at him too," Kaji chuckled. "She was wearing those wolf-ear headpieces of hers too. You should've seen the look on that guy's face when she almost bit his nose off."  
  
"Oh my god...and we left her with Shinji and Touji!?" Misato's eyes went wide.  
  
"..." Kaji paled as he realized the situation. "...Well. Shit."

* * *

An unseen alarm was tripped.  
  
A pair of crimson eyes snapped open beneath the waves.  
  
 **~The Trap is Sprung.~  
**  
The serpentine form uncoiled itself, snaking upwards and higher towards the surface as it did such.  
  
 **~The Spring releases, arcing upwards.~**  
  
It's maw was a row of teeth, each and every one of them a sharp and deadly dagger.  
  
 **~The Curtain Rises. His Deathly Plot Machines Forwards.~**  
  
From that mouth, a forked tongue slipped out and flicked through the water, sensing its targets approach.  
  
 **~The ball rolls down the track. It hits a lever, and the scissors close shut.~**  
  
Now it waited, patiently, for the moment it was to strike.  
  
 **~Snap goes the Twine, and the Trigger is pulled!~**  
  
The little toy boat that sailed ahead of the rest to search for dangers was within range.  
  
 **~And BANG goes the Gun! Our Enemy...~**  
  
The Sixth Angel's mighty jaw snapped upwards through the water, closing around that tiny little ship and crushing it in a single bite.  
  
 **~Is Dead.~**

* * *

In NERV-1's Geofront, inside Unit-01's Entry Plug, Rei and Milano's attention was brought to the present as a familiar klaxon sounded off.  
 **  
_A.T. FIELD DETECTED! CODE BLUE CONFIRMED! SIXTH ANGEL IDENTIFIED!_**

* * *

Misato had been having a very good day (Asuka's flustering comments aside) up until this point.  
  
And then the damned Angels had to attack (As if it were anything but a given on today of all days!) and throw all of that out the window.  
  
"Please tell me you've got a power cable for Unit-02," Misato asked of the boat's captain as she and Kaji entered the bridge.  
  
"We do, but it's on another ship that has larger generators and--" The captain was cut off as the entire ship seemed to jolt for a moment.  
  
"What was that?!" Misato asked.  
  
"Three guesses," Kaji remarked, "and the first and third don't count."

* * *

"Asuka!" Shinji cried out as he watched the girl slide down from the now-released leg restraint on the bright red painted Eva's left leg. "Are you sure this is safe!?"  
  
"Safe!? I've done unauthorized launches like this for years!" her 'bare' feet hit the ground with a thud of rubber against metal. Upon hearing the alarm and the explosions, Asuka had shoved her sandals into Touji's arms and started climbing all over the Evangelion Unit-02 to get to the restraints that were holding it to the ship.  
  
"You--what!?" Shinji blinked at what he was hearing, even as he watched her work her 'magic' on the other leg lock, and BAM-- the entire ship shook as the massive clamp split open.  
  
"I may have gone out on a few joy rides every now and again," Asuka admitted with a wolfish grin as she ran across the deck, out of sight behind the Eva's right side, and began working on the arm restraint. "But to be fair, how else was I supposed to give my dog a regular exercise schedule?"  
  
"Dog?" Touji mouthed at Shinji who gave him a look that said "I'll explain later."  
  
"So, uh--" Shinji paused as the ship shook from another arm clamp releasing. "Is Unit-02 even fit for water combat?"  
  
"Of COURSE it is, you idiot," And then Asuka came out around the head, her Plug Suit returned to a visible, and matching, shade of crimson red and orange, and her sun-dress folded up under her left arm while she focused on putting her wolf-ear-like Connectors head-band onto her head. "Now hold my dress for me, and don't drop it. That's my favorite dress, and if you wreck it, you're buying me a new one!" And then with that warning said, as she walked over to the right arm lock, she tossed the folded up dress at Shinji, who quickly had to catch in lest he earn her ire.  
  
"Errr..." Shinji wasn't really sure what to say in response to that even as Touji just gave him a pitying look.  
  
"Dude, you are so doomed," Touji remarked calmly even as the boat shook from the final clamp releasing, and the Giant titan lying on the ground began to stir.  
  
"C'mon, boy!" Asuka grinned as she climbed up onto the Eva's upwards facing back and scampered towards the Entry Plug in the neck. "Time to wake up! We've got fish to hunt!"  
  
There was a mechanical whine in response, and Shinji wasn't sure if it was the Eva's motors or speakers making it; then the Entry Plug popped open, and Asuka dived in, with the door closing behind her.  
  
And then the giant doors above them began to retract open as the Evangelion pushed itself into a kneeling position from its face-down resting place, and it let loose a roar.  
  
 **_"I! AM! _GROOOOOT!!! "__**  
  
Thus was the moment that Shinji learned that Asuka's dog had been named Groot.  
  
Silently, he put his headphones back on and clicked [Play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdJ3qWlRebg).

* * *

  
The Sixth Angel turned towards the main boat in the fleet, eyes narrowing at the red giant that was standing up inside of it.  
  
 __Can't stay at home, can't stay at school, Old folks say, ya poor little fool__  
  
_"This is Asuka in Unit-02, ready to Sorte!"_ Asuka's voice carried out of the external speakers. _"Please deploy the Trident, Weapons Carrier!"_  
  
 __Down the street I'm the girl next door__  
  
The carrier ship to the Rainbow's immediate right suddenly opened up it's main deck, and deployed a long spear with two twin blades attached to the sides.  
  
 __I'm the fox you've been waiting for!__  
  
And with that- Unit-02 leaped from the Rainbow towards the weapons carrying ship, grabbing the released Trident in one swoop and diving under the water on the other side of the ship.  
  
 __Hello Daddy! Hello Mom!__  
  
The Sixth Angel went to dive as well- when suddenly Unit-02 came up underneath it with a swing of that inappropriately sized trident.  
  
 __I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
The Angel reeled backwards with a mighty hiss as the elongated blades sliced at its skin, and the spearhead threatened to pierce through its neck.  
  
 __Hello World, I'm your wild girl!__  
  
Misato just stared on- "Unit-02's already in underwater gear?!"  
  
 __I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
"Yup," Kaji nodded. "Asuka was prepared for any kind of attack on the sea out here."  
  
 __Stone age love and strange sounds too__  
  
On top of a gun turret on the Rainbow's upper most deck, Kensuke held a video camera in hand and had a wide grin on his face.  
  
 __Come on baby, let me get to you.__  
  
Unit-02 and the Sixth Angel wrestled in the water for a moment, with the Evangelion's legs wrapped around the Angel's serpentine body, feet digging in sharply with the metal-blade like flippers attached to its feet.  
  
 __Bad nights cause'n teenage blues__  
  
The Angel roared in frustration, writing out in the open air as Unit-02 continued to try to impale it with the trident's spear head. Unfortunately for Asuka, the Snake's neck was just a bit too wide to go through the space between the trident's two exterior blades.  
  
 __Get down ladies you've got nothing to lose!__  
  
The Angel had enough of this nonsense, however, and flung itself sideways into the water in an attempt to dislodge Unit-02.  
  
 __Hello Daddy! Hello Mom!__  
  
Inside the Entry Plug, Asuka just smirked. "Nice try!"  
  
 __I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
Still on the surface, Unit-02 twisted its waist and completely upended the Sixth Angel from its present spot, slamming it back into the water in a mirror of what the Angel had just tried.  
  
 __Hello World, I'm your wild girl!__  
  
Unit-02 came out on top, and twirled the trident around over their head a few moments before stabbing downwards at the Angel's already slashed up neck.  
  
 __I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
The Angel brought its head up and snapped at Unit-02's head or arm or shoulder or just about ANYTHING it could get it's hands on- WHAM!- only to be knocked away by a mighty sideways swing of the trident's blade's flat ends, slapping it across the face.  
  
"You know," Shinji remarked as he watched all of this, "I hope someone's recording this."  
  
"Why's that?" Touji asked.  
  
"So that way we can put this song over it," Shinji answered.   
  
"Oh, yeah," Touji cracked a grin. "I almost didn't notice you were wearing those again, _Song Lord_." The use of the nickname came along with a sly chuckle.  
  
 __Hello Daddy! Hello Mom!__  
  
Unit-02 flexed, throwing themselves backwards in another attempt to upend the angel from the water.  
  
 __I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
The Sixth Angel hissed in complaint as it was brought fully out of the water again-- and then actually thrown as Unit-02's legs released their holding grip.  
  
 __Hello World, I'm your wild girl!__  
  
The Angel flipped head over tail for a moment before crashing back into the water with a loud clapping SPLASH!  
  
 __I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
Unit-02 then used its current momentum to dive under the water, and began swimming at a blistering speed towards the dazed Sixth Angel.  
  
The Angel began to get its wits about it just in time to realize that it couldn't see its opponent. It began to panic for only a moment.  
  
 __Hey street boy, what's your style?__  
  
Only a moment because Unit-02 suddenly grabed its tail from beneath it and pulled downwards- dragging the Angel entirely under the surface with a multitude of waves as the Angel began thrashing in an attempt to get away.  
  
 __Your dead end dreams don't make you smile__  
  
Everyone just stared on for a few moments as they watched as Unit-02 bloody the blue waves with a black liquid that was probably the Sixth Angel's blood.  
  
 __I'll give ya something to live for... Have ya, grab ya, 'til you're sore!__  
  
Misato's eyes just went wide as she watched as the Angel surfaced again- this time with Unit-02 firmly riding on its head and forcing it's jaw open with both feet while trying to aim the trident down the Angels' throat, where a glimmering crystaline core could be seen.  
  
 __Hello Daddy! Hello Mom! I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
Asuka just grinned upon seeing it. "Gotcha!" The targeting circle in her eye narrowed in on the core, even as the timer above it counted down the battery time.  
  
 __Hello World, I'm your wild girl! I'm your ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb!__  
  
The Sixth Angel's mouth was forced open enough, and then Unit-02 threw the trident down through its maw.  
  
 __Cherry Bomb!__  
  
Unfortunately for the Angel, the trident was thin enough that it went through while cutting the throats delicate inner lining.  
  
 __Cherry Bomb!__  
  
The Angel's Core was pierced- and not just the core, but the remains of the ship that the Angel had eaten in its opening move- and it gave off a death shriek.  
  
 __Cherry Bomb!__  
  
Unit-02 then back flipped off of the Angel's head as it writhed, trying to deal with the trident in it's vital spot during its final moments.  
  
 __Cherry Bomb!__  
  
Unit-02 twirled in mid air, and then landed on the deck of the ship that had deployed the trident with their back to the Angel as its body glowed brightly.  
  
 __Cherry Bomb!__  
  
And then the Angel's upper half exploded in a violent explosion as that one ship's engine finally gave out and ended the Angel along with the final echoing __Cherry Bomb!__ of the song.  
  
Inside her Entry Plug, Asuka closed her eyes and smirked as she chimed in. "Unit-02 reporting in: Shutdown is Complete." She then glanced at her battery timer. "With three minutes of battery to spare."  
  
It was really closer to Two minutes and Forty seconds, but who was counting?

* * *

 

"So, did I miss the tour?"  
  
Shinji and Touji both yelped in surprise at Kensuke's sudden question from behind them. Shinji, thankfully, didn't drop the dress; Touji on the other hand threw the flip flops high into the air.  
  
"Damn it, Ken'! Stop doing that!" Touji whined, putting a hand onto his chest. "You'll give me a heartattack before I even hit twenty!"  
  
"Sorry," Kensuke apologized.  
  
It was then that Shinji noticed that Kensuke was holding a camera. "Hey, did you bring that over on the helicopter?" He asked.  
  
"Yeah." Kensuke nodded once, "I was going to film the ship, actually..."  
  
"Did you record the fight just now?" Shinji asked.  
  
"..." Kensuke paused for a moment, and then simply replied, "Yes."

* * *

 

Misato, for her part, had not been expecting Shinji to approach her with the request to allow Kensuke to upload an edited version of the angel fight online.  
  
But....it was possible that Kensuke was the one uploading the other videos. So....  
  
"Alright," Misato conceded. "But you've gotta do it in front of me, and you've gotta speak to my boss to get clearance to upload it first."  
  
Kensuke agreed in a heartbeat without any hesitation.  
  
Misato then proceeded to ignore the fact that Shinji was stuck holding Asuka's sundress because the Second Child refused to exit her Eva (Kaji was working on that) in favor of watching the kid at work.

* * *

Rocket turned his external Eye on as Unit-02 walked into the main room- its pilot arguing with the boy riding on the Eva's shoulder.  
  
_"And who says you get to just put battle music over my fights anyways!?"_ the voice was sharp, angry, and female.  
  
"Oh great, another girl," Rocket grumbled. "Can't we get another guy on the team?"  
  
The approaching red Eva then spoke, not externally, but through that strange sub-vocal way that the Evas could communicate with each other- "I am Groot."  
  
"...." Rocket stared out at the Eva, then asked of Milano. "Did you just hear Iron Man over there tell us his name, or was I imagining things?"  
  
"I did, yes," Unit-01 nodded slightly. "Hello! I'm Milano! Mr. Orange Creaminess over there is Rocket."  
  
"Hey, Kid! What did we talk about?" Rocket grumbled. "I am getting a repaint just as soon as I get my legs back under me."  
  
"That's why I'm milking it for all its worth." If the Evangelions had tongues to stick out, she would have been doing that.  
  
"I am Groot," Unit-02 remarked.  
  
"Yes. Yes," Rocket would have rolled his eyes if he had two of them to roll, "we heard you the first time." He looked at the boy- Shinji! Who else would it be?- who was arguing with the other robot's pilot, and he called out externally. _"Yo! Shinji! How's it hanging? Haha! Get it? 'Cause he's hanging off of the shoulder?"_  
  
"I'm fine, Rocket, thanks for asking," Shinji replied. "I'll be a lot better though once I've got my feet on solid ground again though."  
  
_"I won't!"_ The new Eva's pilot remarked, and the Eva agreed with a vocalized _"I am Groot."_  
  
Milano glanced at Rocket, "Is that all he can say?"  
  
"Yo, Iron Man!" Rocket called out, "You got a wider vocab or is it limited exclusively to 'I' and 'Am' and 'Groot', in that order?"  
  
"I am Groot!" the Eva replied helpfully.  
  
Inside his own mental landscape, Rocket performed a double face palm. "Great....Just great."  
  
Milano laughed at his reaction.  
  
"Okay, just turn around..." Shinji guided from the shoulder, "Step back, step back...and....!"  
  
Unit-02 stepped into the third of the three Eva harnesses. The clamps snapped shut around the limbs with a hydrolic hiss, and Shinji took the first moment of everything stopping movement to hop off onto the catwalks and then he ran.  
  
_"What's up?"_ Rocket asked.  
  
"Can't stop- avoiding her anger!" Shinji cried out as he ran across the catwalk in record time- absconding from the scene even before Unit-02's entry plug was forcibly ejected by the Harness' programming.  
  
"GET BACK HERE!" Asuka yelled out as she jumped out of the entry plug onto the catwalk- her LCL covered feet slipped slightly and she slid against the railing. "I'm NOT DONE yelling at you for trying to make a video without paying me royalties first yet!"  
  
And so she tried to run after him- but found out rather quickly why it was advised to wash off that LCL first instead of doing something else immediately afterwards. Running just made her slip against the metal- though she didn't fall thanks in part to already leaning against the railing from before.  
  
"!!!!!" Asuka swore in German, and Unit-02 gasped at what she said.  
  
Rocket chuckled. "Well, things just got a little bit more interesting around here, didn't they?"  
  
Milano nodded.

* * *

Kensuke sat across from Gendo in his office.  
  
Both stared at each other, eyes met in a firm lock without saying anything.  
  
Gendo steeped his hands in front of his mouth.  
  
Kensuke didn't blink.  
  
Gendo narrowed his eyes beneath his orange tinted sunglasses.  
  
"Synthetic replacements for the eyes?" Gendo finally spoke after a moment of silence.  
  
"Yeah, they're not that great on their own though," Kensuke admitted. "I have to use glasses to get anything resembling high quality picture."  
  
"So why use a regular video camera?" Gendo asked. "Why even provide evidence that could tie you to the anonymous account?"  
  
"Well, when you hack my account's email address just to send me a job offer, well," Kensuke replied, adjusting his glasses, causing them to flash with reflected light that was impossible in this room, "even I get curious."  
  
Gendo smirked, lowering his hands to the table. "When can you start?" he asked.  
  
"Can I get back pay for the last few weeks of video production?" Kensuke asked in return, smirking in return.

* * *

  
Much to Asuka's dismay, Shinji had long since left NERV by the time she finished showering off. Although at some point he'd (actually rather thoughtfully) left her sundress and flip flops in a locker that had a hand-written paper sign (reading "Asuka L. Sohryu" in red permanent marker) on its door.  
  
"So what now?" Asuka asked as Misato lead her to the red car (Asuka approved of the color choice) in the parking garage.  
  
"We head to the apartment that you'll be staying at," Misato answered.  
  
"I get my own place?" Asuka beamed. "Sweet!"  
  
Misato didn't bother telling her the most obvious fact of all.

* * *

 

Asuka's right eye twitched upon seeing Shinji and Rei conversing across the kitchen, Shinji cooking diner, and Rei doodling absently into a notebook.  
  
"I thought...." Asuka began. "I thought I was getting my own place."  
  
"Stop complaining, you get the biggest room out of them all," Misato remarked casually as she tossed her jacket onto the nearest couch. "Yo! Master Cheff! Toss me a beer!"  
  
"It's not even Five yet!" Shinji countered, "You can wait twenty minutes. Drink some water instead."  
  
"After a day at sea? No thank you!" Misato laughed.  
  
"Milk then?" Rei offered.  
  
"Hm," Misato looked Rei over for a moment. Maybe it was the fact that the girl wasn't working on her homework for a change, or maybe it was the sight of the First Child simply drawing (Since when did she do that?)...but whatever the change, Misato actually dismissed all of that, and considered Rei's suggestion. "Y'know what, Milk actually sounds pretty good..." but then she snapped her fingers. "Shinji! Did you get any ice-cream at the store yesterday?"  
  
"Yes. Why?" Shinji asked.  
  
"What kind?" Misato returned, a grin forming on her face.  
  
"Chocolate..." Shinji turned away from his cooking for a moment. "What are you planning, Misato?"  
  
"Chocolate! Just perfect!" Misato clapped her hands. "Alright then new plan! We're having MILKSHAKES to drink for dinner!"  
  
"Oooh! Milkshakes!" Rei's eyes went wide slightly. "I don't think I've ever had one of those before."  
  
"You're going to love it then, Rei!" Misato marched over to the fridge and kneeled down to open the freezer. "PenPen! Hand me the Ice-Cream! We're having Milkshakes!"  
  
"Wark!" And then a Penguin waddled out of the Freezer, holding a tub of Chocolate Ice Cream inbetween his flippers.  
  
Asuka's left eye twitched this time. "What.....the....."  
  
And then Rei turned her attention towards Asuka and smiled. " _Heee~eeey_ there!"  
  
Asuka felt like fainting. It was only through her sheer stubborn will that she remained standing even as Rei hopped over to shake her hand.  
  
"My name's Rei Ayanami, I'm the First Child. You must be Asuka! Misato told us all about you this morning!" and there was this eager, energetic grin that really made Asuka feel unsettled.  
  
Maybe it was the grin alone, or maybe it was the fact that Misato and Shinji both were staring with mildly confused expressions on their faces.  
  
Whatever the cause?  
  
Asuka fainted.


	7. One Week Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Seventh Angel appears.

Once upon a time, Misato Katsuragi would have loathed getting up before her alarm clock, just to do paperwork or eat breakfast.  
  
Now, about two weeks after the Third Angel's debut attack, she found herself doing just that very thing.  
  
While Shinji (Who still was managing to get up well before her) worked on breakfast and Rei (On days like today was awake well ahead of Shinji) was drawing random images on the back of her homework paper (which would give their teacher a good scare), Misato found herself sipping on a hot cup of coffee while catching up on the paperwork that had managed to pile up since the Sixth Angel attack (Presently the last attack within said week).  
  
What paperwork exactly? The usual stuff, really, with the occasional oddball thrown in for good measure...  
  
Well, make that a lot of oddball requests with the occasional usual thing, for today, anyways.  
  
Things like an Evangelion sized Plasma-Launcher Bow, a folding armament array, multiple laser guided carrier drones...  
  
Things that didn't really make sense in context unless one looked over a certain girl's shoulder at the doodles she was sketching out.  
  
Over the last week, Rei's sketches had become more and more well defined to the point of looking almost like blueprints. For what? The Rebuild of Unit-00, naturally.  
  
Rei had taken it upon herself to design the new design for Unit-00, her logic being "Why make it the same when we can make it BETTER?"  
  
"Better" was definitely the closest word to the situation. Unit-00's new look was less and less the thin humanoid design that it had been before. On paper, Rei had made it almost Centaur like, with four legs, and a massive upper torso. The shoulder towers were now laid out horizontally- and looked to have recently been 'changed' to have Rocket Launchers.  
  
By the time these changes would be completed, Misato doubted it could be called Unit-00 anymore.  
  
In all actuality, it seemed that Rei was designing more of a suit of armor for the mutilated Evangelion to wear into battle and less an 'upgrade'. That could be the only thing to explain the larger torso....At least, that was Misato's hope, anyways.  
  
"Alright, Shinji," Misato looked to her watch. "I think it's about time we woke Sleeping Beauty up."  
  
"Sure thing!" And then Shinji stepped away from the kitchen to take his walk-man and plug it into the external speakers. Something he hadn't done in a while since their newest house guest arrived.  
  
Misato looked towards the bedroom doors. "Welp, here goes," she remarked casually moments before a familiar chorus of "OOGA CHAKA"s began poring out of the speakers, followed moments later by Shinji and Rei singing together.  
  
"Oh I can't stop this feeling! Deep inside of me... Girl you just don't realize, what you do to me..." Misato's ears heard a faint groan coming from the bedrooms. "When you Hold me...In your arms to Tight..." Misato then decided to consider the sounds of the two Pilots singing together in harmony. "You'll let me know, everything's all right..." Despite only knowing each other for a relatively short time, they still seemed to have gotten to know each other's vocal ranges fairly well enough to sing as a duet.  
  
"AHHH~" Then came that loud opening once again.  
  
"WAA~~AARRRK~" PenPen even cried out from the freezer.  
  
"AAAAH~'M~!" Then they all stomped their feet twice to the beat- Misato included. "HOOKED ON A FEELING!"  
  
Instantly, a startled yelp came from Asuka's bedroom, followed by a muffled thud of something hitting the bedroom floor.  
  
"Oh I'm High on Believing....!" The two Pilots continued to sing on even as Asuka emerged from her bedroom, hair looking a total mess, and the bed's comforter half slung across her left shoulder and trailing along the floor. "That you're in Love with _Meee..."_  
  
"What." Asuka began curtly, eyes glaring straight at Misato. "Is going on."  
  
"Shinji usually sings when he cooks," Misato replied shrugging slightly.  
  
"He didn't before-" Asuka began.  
  
"We were being courteous!" Rei interjected between verses, and yet still in time to the music. "We Thought you'd... get adjusted before now!" She shrugged. "Also, Misato ordered us to."  
  
"What??" Asuka asked.  
  
"Yup," Misato added. "I told them they could go ahead and sing anyways. It's your first day of school and I didn't want you sleeping in like you've been doing."  
  
"School...?" Asuka's glare returned to Misato. "I graduated College last year. I don't have school to go to."  
  
"That's in the Contract!" Shinji voiced up from the kitchen. "In order to work as a pilot, you've gotta go to school, even if you've graduated college."  
  
"What." Asuka repeated flatly. "Just.... What."  
  
"Your uniform's on the towel rack in the bathroom," Misato informed, clapping in time to the music. "Chop Chop!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the middle of the formerly frozen wastes of Russia, deep within what now is a very active volcano field...  
  
Lava bubbled- something stirred.  
  
 **~The Quantum Conundrum.~**  
  
A Massive beast began to surface from inside the molten core of the large caldera.  
  
 **~The question of Endless Possibilities.~**  
  
It was humanoid, but its limbs were thin, not paper like, but more perhaps like giant metal spikes sharpened to a point.  
  
At NERV-5, the closest base to that field, the A.T. field sensors went wild.  
 **  
_WARNING! CODE BLUE CONFIRMED! A.T. FIELD DETECTED!_**  
  
The lumbering giant made a sound not unlike laughter.  
 **  
~They think me defeat-able like my brothers before me were?~**  
  
The Seventh Angel- still sitting in the middle of an active Volcano, looked upwards at the approaching squadron of Helicopters.  
 **  
~Let them Try. For they fail to see what is in front of them.~**  
  
They held out at a safe distance away from the Volcano's active area of influence- the radio scrambling properties of an active volcano prevented them from getting closer.  
  
The Seventh Angel pulled back an arm, aimed straight at the closest helicopter... _**PCHWREEEIIIIIINNN!**_...And then from the tip of that arm- a laser beam shot out and pierced through that lead helicopter- exploding it in an instant.  
 _ **  
~Let's Dance.~**_  
  
And with that, The Seventh Angel leaped out of the Volcano and brought its arms down upon the rest of the Helicopters.

* * *

 

  
Nova Squad's captain swore as the last of their remote control helicopters were destroyed.  
  
"Alright, let's switch to the big guns," He ordered. "Let's bring this thing down before it attacks anywhere else!"  
  
"RIGHT!" His crew replied in agreement, and began booting up their remote control planes.

* * *

The Seventh Angel chuckled loudly as it stepped over the remains of the Helicopters, and began striding its way out of the active Lava field towards Japan.

* * *

"SONG LORD!!!"  
  
Asuka covered her ears upon hearing the class crying out that name the instant Shinji walked into the Classroom.  
  
"Yo! Everyone!" Who told he he could be doing this introduction anyways?? Asuka scowled. "So as you've all seen by now, we've got a new Pilot here to help defend the city. I'd like to introduce you all to Asuka Langley Sohryu, the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02."  
  
And that was her cue. Asuka opened the door, and strode through casually, hoping to make a good impression on every--  
  
"STAND! BOW! SIT!" Hikari ordered.  
  
\--one...  
  
Everyone had just stood, bowed, and sat down on instinct. Even Shinji who was already sitting at his desk and...Had he gone straight to his desk instead of standing at the front of the class like a normal person was supposed to??  
  
Did he not even care that--?  
  
"Alright, miss Sokryu, if you're not going to say anything then take your seat, please" the teacher mangled her named with a hard K instead of a soft H, "there's a spot in the back between Suzuhara and Sonomiya."  
  
" _ **SOH**_ ryu," Asuka corrected with a slightly sharpened tone. "It's Sohryu. Not whatever it was you said."  
  
"Do I look like I care about proper names, Miss Sohmyu?" the Teacher asked blandly.  
  
Asuka turned with a huff towards her chair. Oh well, at least a place in the back would be easy enough to let her goof off during the most of the class.

* * *

The X-301 Prototype Transformation Jet, Saber Lance, flew in at a break neck pace from orbit.  
  
Developed at NERV-M, the base on the Moon, by one Doctor Samantha Carter- the X-308 was a surface-to-space transforming Rocket Ship that was designed to simultaneously turn into a Shield, a Sword, and a Lance for any one of the given Evangelion Robots in Tokyo-3.  
  
However, given that the device's fatal flaw was that its transformation mechanisms locked up during re-entry (and even if it did work, the melted parts made it impossible to put it back together again afterwards) made this first run of a future weapon system good for only one thing.  
  
In NERV-5's control room, Doctor Zalenka watched the blinking words on the monitor before him with apprehension.  
  
 **_RAMMING SPEED._**  
  
The Seventh Angel looked up at what was basically a giant blade heated to intense temperatures through the fires of atmospheric entry...  
  
 **~Oh? What's this?~** The Angel laughed. **~Do you intend to kill me with such a pathetic weap--?~**  
  
 _SLICE---_  
  
The X-301 cut through its body in a moment- bisecting the Seventh Angel clean down the middle from head down to that weak point between the legs.  
  
The Angel's mouth, which up to this point had resembled a crescent moon filled with razor sharp teeth, was bisected- one half remaining that perpetual grin while the other half....Frowned.  
  
 ** _KTHWAAAAAAM!_**  
  
And then the X-301 exploded.  
  
Apprehension filled NERV-5 and NERV-M's control rooms as they observed the situation.  
  
The smoke cloud began to fade away...  
  
Two mangled piles of flesh lay where one body had stood moments ago...  
  
Then- one pile rippled. The other bulged.  
  
And then with a sudden **SPLORCH** of Red and Green colored fluids- Two colored copies of the Seventh Angel stood where only one had stood before.  
  
The Red one had an eternal grin on its maw- the Green one seemed to be crying so much...  
  
And then they both spawned giant orange domes of translucent Hexagon shields around their bodies....and then they ran off in different directions- the Red one continuing towards NERV-3 in Tokyo-3...  
  
The Green One turned towards the direction of NERV-5, and took off with a whining wail of terror.

* * *

In her lab in Tokyo-3, Ritsuko, who had absently placed a pen over her right ear after coming to watch the situation that had surfaced during her usual paperwork hour, stared, slack jawed eyes wide at the scene that had just occurred.  
  
"But....it just..." Her head turned to the side slightly in befuddlement, and the pen over her ear just fell to the ground with a clatter.  
  
"It cloned itself?" Maya asked faintly.

* * *

The School bell rung out loudly just then- ahead of schedule, and in a pattern that everyone in class had been taught to recognize as a Pilot's summons back to NERV-3. The room went silent as it finished. The hypothetical scenario was simply described as: An Angel had appeared- but it was nowhere near Tokyo-3 at the present moment. Basically, get to where you need to be before it got into town.  
  
Shinji and Rei shared a concerned glance- and then a nod.  
  
They both got up, went over to Asuka's desk (Where she was absently staring out the window and hadn't been paying attention to the bell at all), and with a single, synchronized movement, they grabbed her by the shoulders and began pulling her out of her desk.  
  
"Huh- Wha-!?" Asuka asked, startled. "What are you two doing!?"  
  
"We've been called to work," Rei replied simply. "It's time to go make an Angel cry."

* * *

Unfortunately for Rei, Green!Seventh was already crying- even as tanks and jeeps and rigs of every size shot off rockets and missiles at it, trying to bring it to a halt.  
  
And then some idiot had the bright idea to shoot a laser cannon at it.  
  
The Green!Seventh dropped it's shield all but for a moment and let the high intensity beam cut through it entirely.  
  
Mere moments later- the Green clone of the Seventh had exploded into two more copies. One was Blue, the other Yellow.  
  
Yellow let out a howling roar of anger as it stopped to fight off the army that had assembled to attack it- meanwhile, Blue continued running on ahead towards its target of NERV-5's main base, now letting off so many water works that it was practically leaving a flooding river forming behind it.

* * *

Red paused as it reached the ocean.  
  
It's grin soured, apparently it had not thought about this obsticle.  
  
And so it crouched down, threw up an A.T. field shield larger than any it had put up before, and then let out a howl.  
  
Almost simultaneously- the other two clones of the Seventh Angel stopped their attacks, and also increased their A.T. Shields in strength- causing any attacks thrown against them to dispel harmlessly.

* * *

"It's like they're communicating with each other, conserving brain power to figure out a solution to get the Red clone across the ocean," Misato observed as the three Pilots came down on the elevator into the observation and control lab for the Evangelions.  
  
"What's the situation?" Rei asked as the trio came up to talk.  
  
"Well, for now the Seventh Angel has split into three near-identical copies of itself, two are engaged with military in Russia, while the other..." Misato summarized. "Well, it reached the ocean and now all three are meditating."  
  
"Did you say Russia!?" Asuka asked, surprised. "How are we supposed to get me to it then!?"  
  
"Answer is we're not," Misato answered simply, and firmly, showing that she was locked into Commander mode at the moment. "Unit-02 will stay here and guard Tokyo-3. IF we're sending any Eva out into the field, it'll be Unit-01." She looked to Shinji and asked, "You okay with that?"  
  
"Milano would probably appreciate the scenery," Shinji answered with a shrug.  
  
"You can't be serious!" Asuka protested. "You're sending the kid who stepped into an Eva all of a month ago into battle!? I've got YEARS more log time and--"

  
"That's precisely why I want you guarding the City," Misato answered sharply. "This is NOT a matter that's up for debate, Asuka. People are dead because of that Angel and if you're going to keep arguing who goes to fight it then you're sacked from active duty until further notice and I'll field Rei in your stead. Do I make myself clear, Asuka?"  
  
Asuka locked her jaw, fought back a growl, clenched her hands into fists...  
  
And then she failed to contain her emotions and let out a spew of German that roughly translates as (When put through a politeness filter), "Then Go ahead and ground me, Mother-May-I!"   
  
Misato replied with a simple, "Go Suit Up!" in plain Japanese.  
  
Rei let out a slightly muted hiss as Asuka kicked at the elevator doors and shouted something rather obscene, "Oooh... I think you might have made her mad."  
  
"I gotta agree," Shinji answered as he watched Asuka stomp into the elevator and press a button to force the doors closed. "During the Cross Synch, didn't Rei get a lower score with Unit-02 than the others?"  
  
"And Asuka got even lower scores with Milano, and slightly average with Rocket- but they're still compatible to a degree," Misato answered with an exasperated sigh. "Look, we've won fights so far by playing this smart and using our moves in the best, most efficient way possible. If Asuka's going to question our plans before we can even form them then that's not going to get us anywhere."  
  
"True enough," Rei mused. "But I dunno if I want to synch with Unit-02 or not... he's kinda..." She waved her left hand around in a circle, "Single Minded?"  
  
"Hopefully, we won't have to," Ritsuko called out as she meandered into the room, a laptop under arm, and looking slightly drunk as she swayed slightly from side to side with a concerned Maya following her and trying to keep the Scientist from running into anything that could hurt.  
  
Misato didn't dare ask why Ritsuko was like that, and instead asked, "So what've you got for us, Ritz?"

"Weeellll...." Ritsuko flashed a grin. "Since the Angel hunka-hunkered down...!" there was a faint giggle at her stuttering causing a joke. Shinji sent a concerned glance Maya's way, and she just smiled apologetically. "We've been watchin' th' radio waves," Ritsuko put her laptop down on a desk and pulled the lid open to display a satelite overhead view of the battlefield thus far. "Th' E.T. field's been..." (Maya corrected with "A.T. Field" rather quietly.) "Wha's'a word? Beaker?!...." She started meandering for a while before settling on "Weaker! Yeah! That's the word!"  
  
Rei leaned over and whispered to Misato, "Is she drunk?"  
  
"I think so," Misato answered with a slow nod.  
  
"Anywayzzz!!" Ritsuko clapped her hands. "I had a brainwave! Well, Maya had it really!"  
  
"All I did was take the light bulb out of her desk lamp before she knocked it over," Maya admitted.  
  
"The E.P. Field's weaker because it's split between four different points!" Ritsuko said with a grin.  
  
"Wait, four?" Shinji asked. "I thought there were only three Angels."  
  
"There's only _ **ONE**_ Angel, Shinji-mah-boy!" Ritsuko grinned in an insane way. "And it's been right under out noses the entire time!"  
  
Silence filled the room for a moment before Rei finally asked, "Did anyone else understand that, or am I not out of the loop for once?"  
  
Ritsuko groaned in frustration- "The Angel **SPLIT** before it even got attacked in the _**FIRSP LACE!"**_  
  
Silence for a moment- and then Shinji made an "Oh!" Sound and snapped his fingers. "You mean it hid its core somewhere else like the Fifth Angel did!"  
  
"BADABINGOH!" Ritsuko pointed at him dramatically, "Give him a Prize!"  
  
"This is why the Seventh Angel was able to survive a complete bifurcation the way it did originally," Maya explained. "The X-301 cut it clean through- but as we saw from when Shinji killed the Third and Fourth Angels, the Core should have been in the center of the body's torso. Even the recovered camera footage from Unit-02's fight with the Sixth Angel confirms that it had its core near its head."  
  
"But the Seventh was Cut Head First...!" Misato started to understand. "So the Angel's Core hasn't been in its body the entire time."

"But where would it be?" Rei asked. "Did we lose sight of the Angel at any time?"  
  
"No," Misato answered. "NERV-5 engaged it almost as soon as it emerged from the La....va....wait, Lava?" She snapped her fingers as well. "Is it possible that the Angel hid its core inside of that volcano?"  
  
"Exactamundo!" Ritsuko cracked a drunken grin, "I was jus' gonna get to that, ackually."  
  
"We've been monitoring the A.T. fields since they stopped," Maya explained, "and we've noticed that all three clones seem to have trails of a field tracing back to the origin point, and the trail's--"  
  
"Only gettin STROGAH!" Ritsuko swung around dramatically- only to slip and nearly fall on the floor.  
  
"Alright- that's enough of that!" Misato caught Ritsuko before she planted her face into a desk or something. "What the hell got into you, Ritz?"  
  
"She practically drowned a bottle of wine after seeing the first split," Maya explained, "then two more after it split a second time."  
  
"Phyzex just don't WORK like DAT," Ritsuko lamented, sobbing quietly into Misato's shoulder. "They just DON'T...!"  
  
"Alright, so now that we know where to kill it," Rei asked, "how are we going to kill it?"  
  
"Well, now that's the question of the hour, isn't it?" Shinji asked in return.

"Well, if the Core is hidden in the Volcano, then it might be able to be destroyed by dropping an N2 Mine on it..." Misato mused as she handed Ritsuko off to Maya. "But if it's the source of these three A.T. fields, it might be able to protect itself at the same time."  
  
"But if the Field is weaker with them split apart..." Shinji began, "what if we just split them up even more? Weaken the field so that way the Angel's spread itself so thin it can't protect its own core?"  
  
"Intentionally make the Angel duplicate?" Misato asked. "Risky....but it could...."  
  
"MA'AM!" Someone called out- "The Angel's Moving again!"

Everyone's attention went to the largest monitor in the room...

* * *

 

The Red!Seventh Angel stood up, dismissing the domed A.T. field shield, and wavering its arms around as if casting some kind of spell...  
  
Meanwhile, Blue and Yellow curled into balls and condensed their A.T. Shields down as small as they could go.  
  
 _ **....NRRRGGGG!!!**_  
  
And then the Red!Seventh Angel roared as a giant square plate made out of A.T. hexagons appeared in front of it.  
  
It took a step out onto the platform, as if testing its weight- and then it reduced the size to the smallest possible.  
  
Red cracked a grin, and then broke into a run- dismissing the plate out from underneath it as it summoned a new one infront of it, and then dismissed and re-summoned and so on and so forth.  
  
The Seventh Angel had made a Hard Light Bridge.

* * *

  
In the back of the room, nearly to Ritsuko's lab, said scientist let out a "PHYSIX DOESNP WORK LIKE THAT!" in frustration, and then broke down into hysterical fits of crying and laughter.  
  
Rei just muttered quietly, "The Angels don't care about Physics, do they?"  
  
"Well, they're Reality Warpers," Shinji answered just as quietly. "Of course they don't care."  
  
"Maybe we should make them care, then?" Rei offered.  
  
"Know what," Misato said suddenly with a lot of determination, "Let's." She then roared out "SOMEONE GET A ROCKET LOCKED ON THAT ANGEL AND SHOOT IT OUT OF THE SKY!"

* * *

The Seventh Angel's Red Clone's Face was grinning.  
  
Sure, it was practically running the risk of being hit by another orbital bombardment of a giant blade, and was definitely a Running Duck out on the middle of the ocean like this...  
  
But it was really the most efficient way for it to get across the ocean to Tokyo-3.  
  
The sounds of a rocket's thrust became audible.  
  
The Seventh Looked up with a grin to meet the rocket coming at it head on....  
  
Except for the fact that the Rocket hit it in the chest instead- and then the N2 Warhead inside detonated.  
  
 **KABOOOOOM!**  
  
The A.T. Field path beneath Red collapsed in an instant as chunks of charbroiled Angel Meat went flying in all directions across the ocean's surface.

* * *

Deep inside that Volcano that it had first emerged from, the Seventh Angel's core trembled with anger.  
  
Red had been split up into multiple fragments.  
  
Red was Dead.  
  
There was no way to turn those chunks into larger clones without first dismanteling Yellow and Blue.  
 **  
~Well...fine then. Be that way.~** The Seventh thought as it sent the signal to Yellow and Blue. **~Right back at you...~**

* * *

The A.T. fields around Yellow and Blue suddenly began contracting- shrinking down and down and down and compressing the Angelic Clones inside into an increasingly smaller shape.  
  
The generic thought of everyone around either Angel Clone was a simple: "Crap! Let's get out of here!"  
  
And then the Seventh Angel's Yellow and Blue clones exploded with a **SPLORCH** , showering the landscape all around with similarly colored blood.

* * *

"...." Misato just stared at the carnage on the screen for a moment. "Welp. So much for Plan A."  
  
"Seventh Angel's A.T. field Spiking!" Someone shouted out.  
  
"It's gained Critical Mass!" Makoto yelped at the readings.  
  
"What does that even mean?" Shinji asked.  
  
"It means you go suit up NOW!" Misato ordered- panic showing in her eyes and in her tone of voice.

* * *

And then the ocean seemed to explode with color as a veritable rainbow of Seventh Angel Clones- all of which were vastly smaller than the original had been- shot into the air on wings made out of A.T. fields and they soared through the air on an arc that would bring them directly towards Tokyo-3.

Inside the Volcano, the Seventh laughed.  
 _  
 **~SUCKERS!~**_

* * *

Asuka Langley Sohryu -- Second Child, Pilot of Evangelion Unit 02.  
  
That was what it read on her Resume, right at the top. All very formal. A Type-writer styled font of English characters because- duh- English is the planet wide accepted language for Official Words that Must Never Ever be Misinterpreted under Any Circumstances.  
  
It also said that she had the longest recorded Piloting Experience, as well as the highest Synch Scores ever noted- a Classy 87% on the average start up.  
  
And here she was being ordered around as if she had less experience than a kid who had first stepped foot inside an Eva all inside less of a month ago.  
  
Asuka scowled as she let her Plug Suit tighten and pressurize around her skin. Oh she'd deliberately suited up slowly. Just to show them.  
  
"Here I come out all this way to be the big damn hero everyone needs, and they're brushing me aside like some Newb!" She wanted to yell it- in not so nice words, to boot.  
  
Well, she'd show them. She'd Solo this God Forsaken Angel just like the last one. If Wonderboy and Hypergirl could take out three angels with barely any experience, then surely she- Asuka Langely Sohryu- could take on one measly little angel, even if it had the power to split into multiple bodies.  
  
So what? That just made it fun.  
  
It would be like playing one of those old MMOs where you had to fight two giant Necromancers at once. Or a room full of a skeletons and zombies, for that matter!  
  
And speaking of Wonderboy and Hypergirl, they came running into the changing room with such speed that Asuka wondered how they could be running that fast without the plug suits helping them along.  
  
By the time Asuka finished processing that thought, they'd already run past her so fast that her hair was sent blowing backwards for a moment by the air rushing to fill the void.  
  
"Wha--?" Asuka turned around then to already see them shoving most of their clothes into their lockers while simultaneously getting into their Plug Suits.  
  
And what she saw made things start to make a little bit more sense.  
  
Shinji actually was less of the twig he appeared as when usually wearing a shirt. Where had he lived exactly before coming to work as an Eva Pilot? Didn't Rei mention something about giant crabs once?

  
But that couldn't be right. Giant Crabs didn't exist. It was just a rumor people made up to keep little kids scared from going into the water without their parents to accompany them. But surely it couldn't have been all that dancing? No way.  
  
And speaking of Rei... It was strange to see a red line going across the back of her waist, almost looking for a moment like a scar. But that surely couldn't be right. It was too.... too....   
  
Decorative. That was the word. The red was simply too dark of a red, and too straight to be scar tissue. Was it a tattoo? Had to be, really, given that at the angle Asuka could see Rei's hips at, the line stopped half-way across her right side and didn't continue onto her front. But where would Rei have gotten a Tattoo from?  
  
And then in a moment, both of them had sealed their Plug suits, and Asuka's musings were cut off.  
  
"Come on, Asuka," Shinji said, rolling his shoulders a bit, "Misato wants us launching ASAP."  
  
"What?" Asuka's reply was sluggish as she came back to the present. "But then why'd she suit up?" A thumb jab at Rei to indicate who Asuka was talking about.  
  
"You'll see," Rei replied with a shark-like grin, and then lead the charge back onto the catwalk that connected the changing room to the Eva launch room.

* * *

  
Kensuke was a patient person.  
  
Instead of tagging along with Shinji and company back into NERV, Kensuke simply logged into the MAGI server with the account that he had been given for signing on contract with NERV.  
  
From there, he brought up many live feeds of NERV's precious, sensitive internal surveillance cameras.  
  
And then, with a few typed commands into his laptop, he started recording.

* * *

_"Sealing Entry Plugs and setting Plug Depth!"_ Someone called out as both Unit-01 and 02's entry plugs were closed, and then began the usual insertion into the Eva's necks.  
  
Askua finished adjusting on her Neural Interface Headset as the plug stopped with a slight jerk. "Time to go to work, boy..."  
  
_"Plugs set! Starting LCL Pumps!"_  
  
"Wake up, Grooty," Asuka patted at the controls before her as the orange liquid filled the Entry Plug. "We've got and Angel to deep fry."  
  
The LCL rose past her hips, and was quickly up to her chest. Asuka took a deep breath, and then exhaled as the LCL came up to her neck.  
  
Already, she felt a tingling sensation from the headset, even as the liquid went into her mouth and up into her nose too...  
  
Once upon a time, she fought back the urge to gag. Why the LCL always had to smell like a wet dog, she had no clue at the time, but it had become a comforting sensation over the many years.  
  
_"Starting Connections In Five...Four..."_  
  
Asuka closed her eyes, and in her head, imagined the familiar shape of her family's pet dog.  
  
_"...Three..."_  
  
The color of his fur, the shine in his eyes....  
  
The whole Entry Plug suddenly stretched out into whiteness, and Asuka's vision started to split apart into four even as she wrapped her arms around the memory of happy times.  
  
In her mind, Asuka was a child again, Groot in her arms, tail wagging happily as he licked at her face.  
  
_"Neural Handshake stablished!"_  
  
And then Unit-02 roared: _"I AM _**GROOOOT!"_**_  
  
Not for the first time, the speak of the other Evas suddenly became clear.

"Yes, yes, we know," Unit-00 spoke up. "You Is Groot. Do you have to yell it across four dimensions at once though?"  
  
"It's fine, Rocket," Shinji's voice could be heard, even though he wasn't speaking. What? Since when could he do that? "Remember for a while there you were on a one track mind too."  
  
Then, there was a girl's voice, one that Asuka had never fully grasped, but still recognized it now to some degree, from the last Cross Synch Test with Unit-01.  
  
"I think he's just a little excited," Milano spoke. "First battle defending the city, after all."  
  
"Well, let's hope he doesn't get cut in half like I did."  
  
"Rocket!" Shinji and Milano scolded at the same time.  
  
"Whaaat? I'm being serious here!"  
  
"I am Groot?" Groot asked internally to Asuka only.  
  
Asuka snorted, "Just ignore them, Grooty. They're just jealous of our fighting skills."

* * *

Rei looked at the screen of falling Seventh Angel Clones... Or more specifically, the Radar screen showing the sizes of the falling Seventh Angel Clones.  
  
"We've got a Loooot of tiny ones along with the big ones!" Rei warned. "I think Section Two might be earning their pay today!"  
  
"Don't they always?" Misato laughed faintly, then patted Rei on the shoulder. "I want you out there, though, incase some of those buggers pull out A.T. fields. No sense wasting ammo against an A.T. shield, right?"  
  
Rei nodded, "Right." And with that, she put on her Neural Interface Headset and dashed off to find the nearest Section Two Supply Closet.  
  
Misato picked up her usual microphone, but hit a button to put it into a different mode. "ATTENTION TOKYO-3!"

* * *

_"We are about to besieged by a hail storm of Angel clones!"_ Misato's voice echoed out across Tokyo-3's hidden speaker system. _"Radar's showing a lot of tiny ones along with a few big ones. How small you might ask?"_ She laughed. _"Looks like some of them might only be about as big as a house cat!"_  
  
At School, Touji and Hikari shared concerned glances, while most of the other students murmured quietly.  
  
Kensuke just sat staring at his computer.  
  
_"So if you see one of these buggers coming at you, don't hesitate to try putting it down!"_ Misato continued on. _"But I will Stress ONLY. WITHIN. REASON."_

* * *

 

"I don't want casualty reports because people tried to be a hero," Misato continued. "If you know you're outmatched and can't put it down- RUN. As fast as you can. Do I make myself clear?" She waited a few moments for it all to sink in, and then said. "Good." She smirked. "Now then, let's get ready to put this bastard of an Angel down for the count.[ _ **EVA! LAUNCH!"**_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HpDPw5YqB4)

* * *

 

Unit-01 and Unit-02 stood in the city, looking up at the rapidly descending 'meteor' shower of Seventh Angel Clones- smaller ones were landing first all across the city already, the really small ones, the rest were still descending.  
  
"Do you HAVE to play that music so loud?" Asuka asked with a frown.  
  
"Hell yes," Shinji and Milano replied as one as they readied the Eva-sized Machine Gun into position, aiming at the largest of the Seventh Angel Clones.  
  
"Pft, Fine. Just don't go crying to me when your ears go deaf," Asuka rolled her eyes.  
  
Down at an entrance to the Geofront, Rei cracked a grin as a random Section Two agent handed her what appeared to be a shot gun, except with red-orange translucent plastic caps instead of normal barrels.  
  
"Oh....Yeah," Rei smirked as she flicked a switch, and the gun let off a distinct Hum.  
  
Inspector Kaji, nearby, just shook his head at that. "Girl's going to scare some people acting like that one of these days."

"She already does," A Section Two agent replied.  
  
And then the largest of the Seventh Angel clones hit the city floors- and Asuka blanked at how small they were compared to the Evangelions. If humans were eva sized, the Angel clones would only go up to the knees!  
  
"What the--?" Asuka trailed off into a long string of surprised and confused German phrases.  
  
_"I am Groot!"_ Groot replied helpfully.  
  
 __"I never knew how complete love could be,"__ Shinji began singing.  
  
Unit-01 took the first shot- blowing one of the larger Angel clones backwards from the impact of multiple car sized rounds.  
  
 __"'Til she kissed me and said, baby, Please"__  
  
Unit-02, not one to be left behind, followed suit and fired off with the standard Pallet Gun- which didn't do much to deter any of the larger Clones- who simply just began their reckless charge towards the Eva duo.  
  
 __(Please) "Go All the Way."__ Asuka scowled as Shinji continued to sing, but just tried to ignore the song lyrics. __"It feels so right, Being with you here, tonight."__  
  
Down below- the largest of the smallest clones were definitely only about the size of a normal human. But they sure as hell looked almost nothing like the Seventh Angel OR a Human at this point. Instead, their vaguely humanoid shapes had been abandoned for Little Purple dinosaurs and winged versions of their humanoid forms.  
 _  
_"Please, go all the way. Just hold me close," (Hold me Close)__  
  
Guns fired off- mowing the winged things down with concentrated shots, and grinding the Dinosaurs down with a few seconds of sustained fire.

 

And then with a _**PZOOOO!,**_ Rei fired off that special weapon she'd gotten hold of- literally incinerating the Clones with concentrated light.  
 _  
_"Don't ever let me go."__  
  
"Hahah!" Rei grinned as she began burning the Angel Clones as they ran at their barricade.  
 _  
_"I couldn't say what I wanted to say,"__ Meanwhile, a Nova fighter jet took off from a runway to soar quickly into mach speeds towards its destination elsewhere in Russia.  
  
 __"'Til she whispered I love you, so, Please..." (Please) "Go All the Way,"__  
  
Meanwhile, some of the smallest ones- looking like little imps that definitely were no bigger than the average house cat- began attacking elsewhere, only to be knocked back by clever students wielding baseball bats or other metal implements (Such as Touji and Hikari, leading the defense of the school with improvised weapons), or people just wantonly driving their cars over the little buggers.  
  
 __"It feels so right,"__ Shinji continued singing as they fired off at the largest of the Seventh Angel Clones, who were barely defending against the continuing shots with hastily made A.T. fields. __"Being with you here, tonight,"__  
  
Asuka scowled at the fact that these largest ones- of which there had been four- had only been reduced to three over the minute of battle thus far.  
  
 __"Please, go all the way. Just hold me close. Don't ever let me go."__  
  
And so- she dropped her Pallet gun to draw a Progressive Sword out of an armament building and then- "DIE ALREADY YOU---!" --She leaped at the nearest Angel clone with a roar of German swears.

* * *

"Asuka!" Misato swore as she saw this happen- more precisely, saw Asuka swinging her sword futilely at the Angel's A.T. Field without making so much as a dent. "Deploy A.T. Field now! You're just wasting energy!"

* * *

Asuka growled- the damned Clone wasn't even fighting back at this point, just sitting there behind its shield and laughing at her. LAUGHING.  
  
 __"Before her alone, I was cruel and mean!"__ Shinji's singing certainly wasn't helping matters either. __"There was a hole in the place where my heart should have been!"__  
  
And then there was the annoying fact that his singing was disrupting the damned clones A.T. Fields- the two that he was focusing at anyways. Their shields finally failed, and they began taking Car-sized bullets en-mass.  
 _  
_"But now I'm changed, and I feel so strange!"__ One fell backwards- crying out as its blood flew all over.  
  
Down below- Rei was running through the city, taking shots at any Angel clone that was down on her level.  
  
 __"I come alive when she says all those things to me!"__ Shinji grinned as the second of his two clones finally began to turn and run away. __"And she says" (come on)_  
_  
He dropped the Eva-sized Machine gun to draw out a Prog. Knife from Unit-01's shoulder.  
  
 __"Come on" (come on)__  
  
He took aim- and thew it in one shot.

 __(come on)__  
  
\--SPLORCH! It went straight through that clone's head, and it fell down dead.  
  
 __"Come on" (come on)__  
  
The Nova Jet began to approach the Volcano site.  
  
 __"I need you" (come on)__  
  
One of the smallest sized clones tried sneaking up on a Geofront defense team-- BANG! --Only to be shot clean through without even a side glance by Kaji.  
 _  
_"I love you" (come on)__  
  
And then the field underneath Asuka's swipes disappeared, and she scored a hit against that Angel Clone.  
  
 __"I need you" (come on)__  
  
The look on its face was hilarious as its head went flying clean off, flipping through the air from the strike to the neck that hadn't even been aimed for.  
 _  
_(come on)__  
  
The Jet took a dive towards the volcano that the core was in.  
  
_"Please, go all the way"_  
  
If the Seventh Angel's core could have emoted, its expression would have matched that flying head.  
  
 __"It feels so right, Being with you here, tonight"__  
  
The Jet hit the lava, and the N2 Mine detonated, shattering the Angel's core under the explosive force. Not even the volcano could have saved it from that fate.  
  
 __"Please, go all the way. Just hold me close. Don't ever let me go."__  
  
The effect was immediate, all of the surviving Angel Clones seized up for a critical three point one four seconds as they felt their Core die.  
  
And as soon as they recovered, most of them found themselves meeting equally quick and painful deaths.

* * *

"A.T. Field has gone silent!" Maya cheered.  
  
Misato sighed in relief, then brought out her microphone once more- "Alright everyone! Let's clean up the stragglers and that's it! Another Angel in the bag!"

* * *

  
 __Goo All The Waaayah!__  
  
Shinji grinned, "That was fun!"  
  
"Your choice in music totally is perverted!" Asuka retorted.  
  
"Not my choice in music, Asuka," Shinji corrected her as that track wound down, "My Mom's choice in music."  
  
"..." Asuka bit back an obvious remark.  
  
"I am Groot," Groot didn't.  
  
Asuka face-palmed, "Just because I thought it didn't mean I wanted to say it, Grooty."

* * *

  
"All things considered," Misato began as she then took a sip of coffee, paused for a moment as she finished said sip, and then resumed speaking, "today went relatively well."  
  
Asuka opened her mouth.  
  
"Shoosh!" Misato held a finger up. "Not done yet."  
  
Asuka closed her mouth.  
  
"So....yeah, today was a thing that happened," Misato continued as she looked around the Launch Lab and those around it. The three pilots were there in front of her, Rei still cooing over the Prototype Laser Gun that was the "Proof of Concept" for what would be going on Rocket's replacement arm, Shinji trying to dry his hair off with a towel while still paying attention, and Asuka...

Asuka hadn't even showed off the LCL yet, and was starting to smell a bit like blood. Her reasoning had been "I'll shower when the Pervert isn't around;" as if she knew what Shinji was like just by one song.  
  
"We had an Angel today that could split apart into lots of tiny angels, just only could do it if we Hit It first." Asuka started to look pleased. "And then of the two Evangelions deployed, only one of them negated any A.T. fields." And that pleasure faded with a scowl and a death glare sent at the Third Child. "I heard a lot of unnecessary quips today," Misato continued on, clarifying: "Unnecessary Friction between my pilots that could have made the situation a LOT worse than it was."  
  
Shinji just smiled apologetically, obviously not know what to say...either that, or was wisely keeping his mouth shut.  
  
Asuka didn't.

"Oh for-!" The German Equivalent to "Crying out Loud" came out sounded a lot more angry when a few unnecessary expletives were added in. "Is this about me ragging on that dumb music?!"  
  
"Not just that, Asuka," Misato sighed, rubbing at her forehead and resuming her search about the room.  
  
Maya was handing Ritsuko a large pot of coffee, likely stolen from the Coffee Maker in the Cafeteria. And there was Kaji, looking a bit worse for wear with some stray Angel blood on his suit.  
  
He gave a silent nod across the room, and Misato knew that he would approve.  
  
"You questioned PLANING stage assumptions, as well as threatened me to take an executive action as your commanding officer," Misato began, "you've been acting like your God's little gift to the world ever since you arrived here in Tokyo-3, and from what Kaji's told me, you basically requested a transfer because you felt that you were, quote, being left out of the action, unquote."

Asuka went to protest- "Yeah, well, you were--!"  
  
"I don't know what kind of boat they run over at NERV 2, but that is NOT how we run things here," Misato interrupted. "I don't care what feelings you had got hurt because of some side thing. Normally? I'd try to work things out here with you. But need I recap the last week for you, Asuka?" Misato didn't give her a chance to reply, "Because apparently I do. Bagging about your synch scores to the technicians during the post-battle check up." She began to count the offenses off the list, "Ignoring the set schedules that we provided for your waking hours- routinely sleeping in, and staying up late at night."  
  
"It's just Jet Lag!" Asuka protested.  
  
"Jet Lag doesn't last a whole week," Misato shot it down. "Today alone you've complained, loudly, about going to school, a thing that is in your contract to work here. You've, as we all remember, threatened me to ground you from active duty just because of a planning stage disagreement. We're fighting a War, Asuka. You don't get to call the planning stage ideas dumb because sometimes the first plan is all you ever Get. And if in the future, for the record," Misato narrowed her eyes. "If I tell you to deploy an A.T. field, you better deploy that damned A.T. Field in a heartbeat."  
  
Asuka processed that, went silent for a moment, and then opened her mouth again. She griped out something in German that sensitive ears would be glad that they could not understand.  
  
Something that Kaji did a double take at, and made Misato replay the memory to make sure she heard it right the first time.

"I dare to be ordering you around?" Misato returned in Japanese, in more polite language, almost in disbelief. "I am your commanding officer, Asuka. It's my JOB to give you orders."  
  
"We don't have ranks!" Asuka returned, angry.  
  
"You're right, you don't," Misato replied with just the faintest bit of snark, "because you're on _CONTRACT._ We're _PAYING_ you to do your job, follow our orders, and Pilot the Freaking Giant Robot. If you don't want to be following orders then you won't get paid, and you won't get to see your pet dog ever again."  
  
"You...!" Asuka shut her mouth for a moment. "You wouldn't DARE!" She sounded as if she didn't believe that.  
  
"I would and I am," Misato replied with the simple motion of crossing her arms. "One Week."  
  
"What?" Asuka asked.

  
"One Week. You do NOT step one single _Foot_ inside Unit-02 for a whole seven days," Misato clarified. "You are strictly on Cross Synch tests for the entire time. Milano and Rocket- improve your ratio with them by a good ten percent before the week is up and I might just let you off early.  
  
"PSH! Easy!" Asuka thought it a game.  
  
Misato turned to Shinji, "Shinji, go be a dear and tell Milano to play music every time she syncs with Asuka. And make it loud."  
  
"Er...." Shinji blinked.  
  
"And Rei? Go tell Rocket that if he makes synching with Asuka as hard as he made it with synching with you, then I'll throw in a free upgrade to the left arm. Free rotating, gyroscopic wrist, plus a single staff with two Progressive Swords on it."  
  
"Oooh!" Rei's eyes lit up a bit. "Spinning sword shield?"  
  
"Spinning Sword Shield," Misato nodded.  
  
"SWEET!" Rei punched a fist into the air.  
  
"Yo-YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" Asuka yelled in not-so-polite German. So many unnecessary expletives. ....Actually...  
  
"Also, Asuka," Misato had a clever idea then, "every time you throw in an unnecessary swear in German, I'm docking ten dollars from your pay."  
  
"Y-" Asuka went stock white for a moment. "Wait, what?" She blinked and shook her head. "What did you seriously just say?"  
  
"Swear. Jar." Misato clarified. "You pay ten dollars for every swear you make."

  
Asuka just stared blankly. The room actually just went completely, one hundred percent silent.  
  
Misato took a deep breath, then lifted up her cup of coffee and took a long, drawn out, drink. She savored the taste of the coffee, enjoyed the simple melody of footsteps on the catwalks outside, the rattling of the air conditioning, the simple hum of computer monitors...  
  
Nobody dared speak a word.  
  
She locked eyes with Kaji, and he made some strange gestures with his hands that they had devised back in college. Something that only they knew.  
  
"So!" Misato began, a smile forming on her face. "I'll leave it to Makoto to confirm that we've taken all of the Seventh Angel Clones, burnt their bodies, and generally....disposed of the problems."  
  
"Oh, joy," Makoto replied faintly, dryly, almost as if he, too, had been burnt to a crisp. The faint twitch of his mouth indicated he was holding back a smile though, possibly laughter.  
  
Misato didn't care.  
  
"In the mean time, I am going to go blow off some stress," Misato put her empty coffee cup down and then clapped her hands. "Don't anyone expect to see me until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, alright?"  
  
"I'll give your plate to Pen Pen then," Shinji quipped.  
  
"I'm sure he'll appreciate it," Misato then turned to leave, passing by Asuka as she went. "Now, I've held you all long enough. Don't you all have Reports to make, Angels to kill, and Showers to take?"  
  
Asuka stormed off towards the showers in a flury of Angry German.  
  
When Misato met him at the elevator, Kaji asked, "How much is that for the jar?"  
  
"I'll let her have the rest of today free," Misato admitted, "that's already her whole week's paycheck gone if I did my math right."  
  
"Ouch," Kaji grimaced, then changed subjects. "So...eat in or take out first?"  
  
"Eat in, definitely not in the mood for take out," Misato replied in a heartbeat.

* * *

Many, MANY, Hours later: well after NERV had given up their search for any remaining Seventh Angel Clones (they called it off at sunset), a single form stirred in the trunk of a car.  
  
It was one of the cat-sized Seventh Angel Clones, and it was scowling mad.  
  
 **~So it seems that this is the only one of me left...~**  
  
A Last ditch effort sent its whole mind into one of the cloned bodies the moment the Core had been shattered.  
  
Without that core, it couldn't make an A.T. field.  
  
Without that core, it couldn't attack.  
  
Without that core, it could do little but send out a weak mental signal towards its nearest sibling.  
  
 **~Arise, and I shall aid you in destroying this city, my Sibling.~**

* * *

Deep in the mountains, a few miles away in an empty part of Japan, something awakened from its slumber.  
  
 **~The Sixteenth Hour has struck?~** it asked. **~Is it this one's time to awaken?~**  
  
 **~Yes and No,~** The Seventh answered. **~Put this stupid city to slumber, and together we shall end them all.~**  
  
 **~Breaking Order of the Cycle.... our Father would not approve.~** the Sixteenth Angel in the proper order replied.  
 **  
~The Cycle is already broken. Tabris appeared well before Father was even supposed to have seeded us. The Gatekeeper likely helped with that.~** The Seventh replied. **~I can sense the ripples Tabris' meddling has caused in this world. This Cycle is predestined to Doom. It only leads to DEATH if we do not achieve our goal first.~**  
  
 **~...Consider this one Intrigued.~** The Sixteenth mused. **~To halve her number.... to end the Cycle early....we have not tried that yet, to this one's knowledge.~**  
  
 **~Then will you help me, Sister?~**  
  
 **~The Weaver of Dreams Awakens.~** And so it began to send out tendrils. **~The Web begins to be Spun.~  
  
~Beware our power, our combined might,~ ** the Seventh chuckled.  
 **  
~Sixteen becomes Eight! This one's Fate will not be determined by those preceding her!~** A massive, humanoid torso broke out of the rocky mountain side- and then moments later, eight massive legs emerged, attached to a lower body that was distinctly arachnid in composition.  
 _ **  
~Together we shall obliterate our enemies, and destroy the Interloper!~**_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued, much?


	8. Fooled Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Eighth Angel attacks. Remember, Kids! Tomato sauce + Seventh Angel Blood = a strange green stain with the smell of sulfur that refuses to wash out!

Shinji's eyes cracked open slightly. "Nrgh...?"  
  
There was a faint, vague feeling scratching at the back of his mind...  
  
Something wasn't right.  
  
For a moment, he couldn't place what it was. There was something weird. He blinked- but didn't notice much. It was still too dark.  
  
Shinji held his hand up in front of his face, and moved it back and forth to try to gauge the brightness level. And then when the back of his hand accidentally brushed against his forehead due to the sheer amount of blackness, he figured it out.  
  
Sweat made both his forehead and hand stick together slightly. Huh. Almost just like back home when--  
  
He sat up right then with a start.  
  
Just like during the summer months when their Air conditioning had shut down due to a crab tearing down a power line.  
  
Shinji glanced at where the vent at the top corner of the room should have been. The silent yellow light that indicated that it was on...  
  
Was off.  
  
Shinji closed his eyes (or so he thought he did, but nothing about the darkness around him changed) and listened.  
  
Nothing.  
  
There was no hum of power anywhere in the house.  
  
Shinji got out of bed and quietly, slowly, carefully made his way to his bedroom door. It was no easy task, due to the level of darkness. A glance up the hallway confirmed it. The power was out in the apartment.  
  
"That's not good..." Shinji turned down the hall and went to Rei's room. He knocked with a sharp pattern of four knocks- and a few moment later, a groggy Rei opened the door, hair disheveled and rubbing sleep out of her red eyes that really should have not been as visible as they were in this level of darkness.  
  
"Mwuh...?" Rei blinked. "Shinji?"

"How likely is it that the power would go out in Tokyo-3?" Shinji asked.  
  
Rei frowned sleepily for a moment, then replied, "Shouldn't. Back Up generators would turn on."  
  
"Then just our apartment?" Shinji asked. "Because the power is out."  
  
"Power lines run...underground?" Rei frowned for a moment, almost as if her brain refused to kick into awareness. "Yeah, Underground. There's no way that something could disable just our apartment's power."  
  
"Hmf..." Shinji frowned. "Rei, do you happen to have night vision by any chance?"  
  
"Night vision?" Rei's eyes blinked again- and the level of light coming out of them was noticeably brighter on the exit of the blink "Oh, yeah. Forgot I could do that. Ritsuko told me not to do it or else I might accidentally blind myself looking at lights." She laughed slightly in that way that people do when still-half asleep, "Guess if it's the middle of the night I won't be doing that then..."  
  
"Can you find your way to the front door and look outside and see if its just us then?" Shinji asked, "Because I can't see a thing in here except for your eyes right now."  
  
"'Lright," Rei nodded, and moved past Shinji almost as easily as if the hallway lights were on. "'S'Probably just a hiccup in the MAGI..."  
  
"Or one of the Angel Clones messing with us," Shinji offered the alternative possibility.  
  
"...There's that too," Rei stopped for a moment as she considered that. "But we destroyed the core, right? Shouldn't he be dead?"  
  
"We dropped a bomb on it, and didn't confirm the kill personally," Shinji frowned. "Something could have survived."

"...Alright, I'm awake now," Rei said, shaking her head out. "Go check on Asuka. It might still be early enough she's still awake, so see if she noticed when the power went out."  
  
"Got it," Shinji then made his way across the hallway as his only light source- Rei's eyes- turned away and headed up towards the front of the apartment.  
  
Shinji took a deep breath and braced himself- then knocked on the door to Asuka's bedroom.  
  
Silence followed.  
  
"Asuka?" He called out, trying for the door-knob. "You awake?"  
  
No reply.  
  
Shinji opened the door and peered inside.  
  
Almost instantly he nearly blinded himself upon seeing the glare of a Laptop screen outlining Asuka's head over at the desk at the far end of the room. There was a subtle click of a mouse button, indicating that Asuka was still awake.  
  
After a moment to let his eyes adjust, Shinji walked into the room, careful not to walk into the corner of the bed that was thankfully visible thanks to the laptop screen.  
  
As he got closer, Shinji noticed a pair of headphones over Asuka's ears. She seemed to be playing a video game of some kind, something with Dragons, apparently.  
  
 _'Well, that explains why she didn't answer,'_ Shinji rolled his eyes.  
  
He got within arm's length, reached out for her shoulder, and said her name loudly. "Asuka!"  
  
"WAHRGH!" She jumped under his hand at the sudden intrusion into her private little world. She spun around in her office chair and glared at him as she spewed out a long sentence in German that definitely was calling him something offensive, including the only Japanese words that he could understand from the spiel: "Stupid Pervert."  
  
Shinji didn't care, and simply let her rant herself out before saying simply, "Power's Out."  
  
For a moment Asuka scrunched up her face in confusion- then reached a finger to hit the Escape key on her laptop keyboard before pulling her headphones off. "What??"

"I said the Power's Out," Shinji repeated. "Did you notice when?"  
  
"No," Asuka scowled, "my laptop runs on battery and I had the lights off ever since I got home."  
  
"What time is it?" Shinji asked.  
  
Asuka spun around in her chair and alt-tabbed out of the paused game, "Three Twenty One A.M." She hissed, "Damn it, I didn't mean to stay up that late."  
  
"Guys!" Rei's voice called down the hallway just then. "You're going to want to see this."  
  
Getting out of Asuka's bedroom and to the front door was fairly easy thanks to Asuka's laptop screen providing light.  
  
If only it could have provided light for all of Tokyo-3.  
  
"Holy...!" Asuka trailed off in a string of German as she looked up at the grey dome covering the sky in all directions.  
  
"Rei, what is that?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Looks like Spider Webs," Rei answered. "At this distance anyways. Who knows what it really is, but I can't see the stars at all, or any clouds for that matter. It's just that same repeating texture over and over again."  
  
"Okay, so...not the Seventh then," Shinji hazarded a guess.  
  
"Not unless he found a way to turn himself into a not-so-itsy-bitsy-spider," Rei replied after a moment, pointing upwards at something large and black that was crawling across the upwards surface of the strange dome.  
  
"So another Angel," Shinji frowned.  
  
"But so close after the last one though?" Asuka asked. "The first wave at least had whole days between attacks."  
  
"Maybe the Seventh was a distraction?" Rei offered.  
  
"Maybe," Asuka grimaced. "But that doesn't explain how the power's out across the city."  
  
"If a lot of clones survived the last rush, then they could have overtaken the power grid after everyone went to sleep," Shinji offered.  
  
"So what do we do?" Rei asked. "Get to NERV and hope the night crew's up? What if the Geofront's turned off too and we can't launch?"  
  
"We just launch manually," Asuka answered. "I've done it enough times."  
  
"Yeah, but that was when there was power to let you get access to the surface," Shinji countered. "If the power's out city wide, then how would we get the Eva's to the Surface?"  
  
"...Er.." Asuka paused for a moment.  
  
"Besides that," Rei frowned. "Even if we can get the Eva's up here, how do we get them up There?" She pointed up at the Spider-like Angel crawling around above them.  
  
"That..." Shinji mused. "Is a very good question."

* * *

The first thing to get done, obviously, was to find a way into the Geofront without tipping off the Angel.  
  
Thankfully, it seemed that Rei had a plan for that.  
  
"So back when I was learning all the contingency plans- really weird hypothetical plans for Angel attacks- one of them was 'what happens if the Angels fill the city streets with lava?'" Rei explained as she lead them, stealthily, quietly, hand-in-hand-in-hand towards the school. "Weird, I know, but it was one of Doc Akari's plans." She giggled slightly. "By the way, wanna guess where that nickname came from?"  
  
"Not really?" Asuka glanced nervously up at the darker than black spot above them- the Angel was still unaware of their presence.  
  
"One time I caught her and Maya-chan roleeee playing in their office," Rei explained anyways, swaying slightly as she did such, and nearly send them all off course into the corner of a building. "Hehehe....that was hilarious. I didn't understand at first why Akagi was insisting Maya call her Akari instead, so I just was quiet about it for a while, but then it came to me one day and i bring it up every nowanagain just to see how she reactzzz..." she stopped moving and seemed to have fallen asleep.  
  
Shinji frowned, and shook Rei by the arm, "Rei, are you alright?"  
  
"HUh? Wazzat??" She shook her head out. "Ugh, sorry. I think that Angel's doing something weird. I keep wanting to fall asleep even though I know I shouldn't."  
  
"We could tell," Asuka frowned. "So is it putting out an A.T. field to make everyone fall asleep or something?"  
  
"Proba-" Rei yawned- "Blyyyeeee..."  
  
"That'd explain why nobody noticed an Angel building a giant web over the city," Shinji frowned.  
  
"Let's hurry up and get to the school then," Asuka ordered. "I don't wanna be caught out here in case the Angel decides to come down for a midnight snack."  
  
"Right, Rei, focus," Shinji began, "what's in the school building that'll let us into the Geofront?"  
  
"Right, right," She nodded, "well, there's supposed to be a tunnel in the basement. Not really a tunnel more like a slide disguised as an air vent. Basically the contingency is if we get caught in school with no easy way to get into the Geofront, the slide'll take us right down through the armor layers."  
  
And so they continued onwards to the school. Rei leading Shinji by his right hand, and he leading Asuka by her right (Reluctantly). It was the only real viable solution in a darkened city so black that you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face.  
  
It was like being blind.  
  
Thankfully Rei's strange genetic biology gave them a way to get around that, but it wasn't all that handy when she could fall asleep at any moment.  
  
Hence, Shinji tried his best to keep her talking.  
  
"Yknow? Onea these days I wanna meet something that can send us into other worlds," Rei mused. "That'd be so much fun. Going out, fighting monsters that aren't Angels... maybe I'd meet the Fusion Fighters! I bet that'd be fun! Shoutmon and the rest... Hey! If we ever meet them we could hold a concert with all the music off of your walkman, Shinji!"  
  
"Sounds like fun," Shinji agreed.  
  
"Ugh, more music," Asuka groaned. "What is it with you all here and playing music to your Evas?"  
  
"What, doesn't Groot like music?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Absolutely not!" Asuka said it so quickly that she was sure to be lying. Or maybe she just wasn't sure? Regardless... "I finally figured out the pattern to all of your songs! Love! Sex! Rock and Roll! What's with that?!"  
  
"They're all songs my mom put on the Walkman for me, and in Milano's hard-drive," Shinji replied. "I think it was an experiment to get me and her to synch up on a first try. We'd have that common love for the same songs, and we could work together with it. Groot was your dog, right?"  
  
"Yeah," Asuka nodded, though Shinji wasn't even looking to see, not that he could in the dark.  
  
"So you and him had a lot of common memories already to build off of, right?" Shinji then said, "Rei and Rocket had a hard time synching because they didn't have any common memories at first. It's also why we aren't getting higher scores when we cross synch with different Evas."  
  
"..." Asuka mulled on that for a few moments. She wanted to say something to refute his claims, but damn if Shinji wasn't actually making sense.  
  
Of course she got higher Synch Scores with Groot because they had been partners together for so long. But simply knowing the same songs could cause a high synch score on the first try? That just seemed....  
  
Off.

But if it worked...?  
  
Then there was the usage of music to synchronize the attacks of Units 01 and 00 during the Fifth Angel attack...  
  
Maybe the music had its place in--  
  
Nope- Asuka shook her head. No way. She refused to accept that. It just ran so counter to what she knew about Synchronizing.   
  
She refused to accept it so hard that she completely dropped that train of thought to check to make sure that her laptop was still held firmly between her chest and her left arm.

* * *

They made it to the school easily enough.  
  
"Problem One with this plan," Asuka said flatly as Shinji tried to open the front doors- locked. "We don't have the key."  
  
"Let me..." Rei lightly pushed Shinji away, reached for the door-handle...  
  
 _CLICK_  
  
In the darkness that was only illuminated by Rei's eyes, it wasn't quite clear what happened exactly. All that was clear was that a moment later, Rei was opening the door just fine.  
  
"Guess we can add Super Strength to the list of super powers, then?" Shinji mused with a slight laugh.  
  
Once they were inside- they quickly realized Problem Two with this plan.  
  
"So....who knows where the basement staircase is by memory?" Rei asked hesitantly.  
  
"...I didn't even know this place had a basement until just tonight," Shinji answered truthfully. "Or was it this morning?... Urgh, I hate blackouts. They completely mess with your sense of time."  
  
"It'll be dangerous to go down any stairwells in the dark anyways," Asuka slipped her hand out from Shinji's (So _totally_ not reluctantly. No sir, not sarcastically denying anything here) and carefully moved to hold her laptop in a forwards facing position. "Rei, cover your eyes."  
  
Rei turned off her night vision, temporarily leaving the locker room in total blackness before Asuka's laptop screen sent out a blinding wave of light out into the darkness.  
  
"Hiiisss!" It was Shinji who happened to be looking right at the screen when that happened, as it so happened. "Why! Oh WHY was I looking that way!? OW that stings...!" And he was acting a tad over dramatically too.  
  
Asuka bit back the sarcastic part of a snicker, leaving behind the joking half as she then said, "Serves ya right for trying to sneak a peak, Sherlock!"

If anything, that brief exchange got Rei to laugh a bit, and soon, the three of them were laughing together for a few precious moments.  
  
No world ending Angel hanging above them, no world saving mission to rush them along; just three kids caught up in a black out, laughing at the fact that a bright light was, quite obviously, as bright as a laptop screen.  
  
And then there was a crash from above them- loud, metal and wood hitting tiled floors.  
  
The three Pilots froze as silence filled the School building yet again.  
  
And then a cry called out from above- the Class Rep's familiar voice echoed comfortingly though the halls, regardless of the frightened tone being used- "Hello? Is someone down there?"  
  
The three pilots let out a collective held breath as Shinji called back, "Hikari?! Yeah, it's just us!"  
  
"Us who!?" And then there was a surprise- Touji's voice as well.  
  
"Who else would it be?!" Asuka rolled her eyes. "We're quite obviously the Tooth Fairies here to steal your teeth!"  
  
Mere moments later, a pair of flashlights shone down through the doorway as Hikari and Touji came walking into the locker room, wielding said flashlights.  
  
"I can't believe I'm saying this but I find that somehow comforting coming from you," Touji said with a relieved expression plain as day on his face.   
  
"It's great to see you three, but, um.... How did you get in?" Hikari asked, confusion plainly evident.  
  
Wow, is it great being able to see people's faces again!

As Shinji and Asuka both tried to figure out how to answer that in their own unique ways, Rei answered with a simple, "I made a Key with an A.T. field."  
  
"Oh, okay," Hikari sighed in relief. "I should have called you earlier then, might have saved us the trouble."  
  
"Okay, now it's my turn to ask," Asuka took a moment to look the two teens over. "Why are you still here, and _WHY_ are you only wearing your shirts?"  
  
"That's um..." Touji scratched at the top of his head with his free hand. "Kind of a long story."  
  
"Really can we not talk about this right now?" Hikari's face went red with embarrassment.  
  
"No." Asuka said. "I need details. NO-"  
  
Shinji put a hand over her mouth, and said, "What Asuka means to say is 'can you summarize it in three sentences or less?'"  
  
"Angel clones got in the school," Touji explained. "We were on cleanup duty after class and the janitor locked us in not knowing we were here."  
  
"We got angel blood on our clothes so we decided to wash them in the mean time," Hikari concluded, opening her mouth to say a bit more when suddenly, Shinji yelped and pulled his hand away from Asuka's mouth, shaking said hand in pain.  
  
"What was that for!?" he asked.  
  
"Don't cover my mouth." Asuka growled at him.  
  
"You bit my palm!" Shinji replied, somewhat in shock.  
  
"I blocked my teeth with my lips! Totally didn't break the skin." Asuka countered.  
  
"You still bit me!" Shinji replied, staring at her in confusion.  
  
"Then Don't cover my mouth again," Asuka replied.  
  
"Normal people usually lick instead of biting if they want to gross someone off enough to stop doing that!" Shinji informed her.  
  
"If I licked you it'd mean that I liked you, so therefore I bite to let you know I don't like you," Asuka summarized simply, and would have crossed her arms to punctuate the sentence if only she didn't have her laptop spread across her arms.  
  
Rei simply side-stepped over to Hikari and whispered, "If you ask me, I think the lack of sleep has made Askua go a _little_ loony."  
  
"Aren't you wearing bunny-print pajamas, Rei?" Hikari asked in return.  
  
Rei looked herself over, then glanced at the arguing Shinji and Asuka, and realized that all three of them were still in their sleep wear. "Huh." She then turned to Hikari and replied, "So I am."

* * *

  
Before hitting up the emergency vent to the Geofront, a detour was taken to see if Hikari and Touji's clothes with stained Angel Blood were salvageable or not.  
  
"So...why does it smell like sulfur?" Asuka asked.  
  
"Don't Ask!" Those two replied in such harmony it sounded rehearsed, almost.  
  
"Er," Rei grabbed what used to be Hikari's skirt and took a sniff at the largest stain. "Whatever you used to get this off....the chemical reaction to make this happen is _terrifying_." She paused for a moment and then said, "We must burn these immediately."  
  
That really set the mood for the rest of the evening, and nobody was quite sure how to respond to that.  
  
Then, Shinji broke the awkward silence with the simple question, "Anyone got a lighter?"  
  
Touji just quietly replied, "The stove in the caf' kitchen is gas, not electric."

* * *

It was through sheer coincidence that the emergency escape vent down into the Geofront happened to be situated in the supply closet just off of the kitchen.  
  
Rei insisted that the others go on ahead of her while she burnt the sulfur smelling clothing.  
  
Naturally, Asuka was too curious for her own good and stayed behind while Touji, Hikari, and then Shinji (in that order) went through the emergency exit.  
  
"Gas on....click to ignite..." Rei muttered as she turned on the stove, and then prepared to toss the ruined clothes onto the lit burner.

Nobody had noticed, however, that several large drops of tomato sauce were caught inside the burners of the stove, including the one that Rei had just started.  
  
Rei swung her arms slightly, and then began counting, "And A One and A Two..." and then she threw the skirt and pants onto the burner in one toss and quickly backed off by several feet, getting closer to the emergency vent as she waited for something to happen.  
  
The Tomato sauce in the burner had started to bubble and reheat- and then the already dried parts ignited on fire- a flame that quickly spread to the clothing and made the stains light up with a nice blue flame.  
  
Rei's eyes widened slightly, "Uhoh."  
  
Asuka took that as her cue to jump down the vent.  
  
Her 'at home' clothes typically were made out of some slick, silken material. Comfort had been always sought for, even when gaming all night long.  
  
Never before had Asuka cursed her own clothing preferences than in that moment- as silk clothes plus a polished, metal surface equaled a frictionless ride that probably would have been a bit safer if she had been wearing, say, the school uniform or her plug suit.  
  
Asuka screamed.  
  
Needless to say, that scream was drowned out by the sound of Rei's own startled yelp coming down the vent mere moments before a loud THWUMP followed suit.  
  
Asuka slid out of the vent and crash landed in a large plastic ball pit, likely stolen straight out of a Pizza Parlor's Kid's activity center. For a few baffling moments, Asuka wondered where she was and why she was holding her breath when she had been screaming mere moments before.  
  
And then Rei came flying out of the vent, followed by a large burst of smoke that accompanied her exit, and dispersed through the room with the faint smell of sulfur before fading away, even as Rei dove into the room-wide ball pit and submerged beneath the plastic-made surface.  
  
Shinji, at the far end of the room, called out to them, "Is everything alright!?"  
  
The answer was a small spurt of mild orange flames spewing out of the emergency vent for all of a single second.  
  
Asuka surfaced, and responded, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What the heck was that fire just now?" Touji asked.  
  
Rei surfaced next, a nervous looking smile on her face, "Er, well...turns out burning your clothes wasn't the best idea."  
  
"Please tell me you did NOT just explode our school," Hikari face palmed.  
  
"Er, well...?" Rei scratched at the top of her head. "Maybe we got the angel down from the roof?"

* * *

Indeed, that little stunt had definitely gotten the Spider Angel's attention.  
  
With a scowl, she lowered herself down from the dome towards the building that had spontaneously caught on fire.  
  
 **~Well, either someone left the stove on, or we've got some bugs crawling around...~** She spat a large burst of webbing at the burning building, suffocating the fire and putting it out in a few moments.  
  
Couldn't have her dome filling up with any kind of choking smoke, now could she?

* * *

"Also, did anyone else notice that we've got emergency lights on in here?" Touji asked, thumbing over his shoulder at one of the dim red emergency lights that illuminated the hallway leading down through the Geofront.  
  
"Internal batteries," Hikari guessed, "like our flashlights or Asuka's computer."  
  
"Probably," Shinji paused as they passed a sign attached to the the wall. "Let's see here...." He ignored the text that blatantly said, "If you got here by accident, please take the next left to the elevator and ride it up to the surface," and instead focused on the text that read, "Pilots: Take the--" "Damn it." The rest of that sign had been cut off with what looked to be a rather sharp claw. "Rei, got any idea?"  
  
Rei scowled at the damage to the sign. "Looks like one of the scamps probably got down here."  
  
"Scamps?" Asuka asked.  
  
"The cat sized clones," Rei clarified.  
  
"Ah," Asuka nodded in understanding, while Hikari groaned.  
  
"Ugh, so there's one of them down here too?" She asked.  
  
"Man, I thought we killed all of them," Touji crossed his arms in annoyance.  
  
"Probably what took out the power grid," Shinji reasoned.  
  
"Once we get to the locker rooms, we suit up," Asuka ordered. "Even if we can't launch the Evas, we should probably put them on just to be safe."  
  
"Power armor and all that," Shinji nodded.  
  
"What about us?" Hikari asked. "We don't have anything like that."  
  
"We can hit up Akagi's lab," Rei offered. "There might be some prototypes for us that you could use."  
  
"So we get to have skin tight jump suits too?" Touji cracked a smile as he glanced at Hikari and wriggled his eyebrows a bit.  
  
"Is that all you think about?" Hikari just lightly slapped him in the arm with the back of her hand. There wasn't much force behind it, and she even seemed to be trying to suppress a smile of her own.  
  
Shinji and Rei decided to move on further down the hallway, while Asuka just stared at them for a moment and tried to figure out what was going on between them.

* * *

"Logic dictates that if we're supposed to go left if we got here by accident," Rei began, "then we should head right to get down into the Geofront."  
  
"Or maybe we just continue on ahead?" Shinji asked.  
  
To put it in simple terms, they had reached a cross roads. The path now split into three different directions. Left, Forwards, Right- and none of them had a sign as to where to go.  
  
"Well, left is right out," Touji said, "and if right is assumed...then..."  
  
"Oh for cryin'..." Asuka turned to the right, "I'll scout ahead for a minute, then come back if I see anything." And so she went down the hallway.  
  
Not half a minute passed before she came back at a running pace, repeating "Not that way!" as fast as she could as many times as she could before veering to her right (What was the forwards path) and correcting to "THIS WAYYYY!"  
  
While Hikari just shrugged and turned to follow Asuka (Touji following along), Shinji glanced at Rei, and she turned on her night vision for a moment.  
  
Then, she turned it off, and said to Shinji, "Down that way lies madness."  
  
And so with that said and done, Shinji and Rei turned to follow Asuka.  
  
What could possibly have caused such a reaction? Our camera pans down the hallway briefly to reveal....  
  
My God...  
  
The Camera Reveals...!!!!  
  
...A sleeping security guard with a can of blood-red spray paint in hand, and a lot of Angel-smack-down imagery spray painted onto the wall as some for of memorial. The guard apparently had fallen asleep mid art-piece, resulting in having dropped the can and allowing the liquid inside to break free in an explosion that made the scene look a lot more gruesome than it was.  
  
The guard snorted in his sleep and scratched at his nose just to prove the point that he was still alive.

* * *

Fortunately, our heroes managed to find their way into the main complex of the Geofront with ease- having chosen the right path (Forwards, not Right) to continue on.  
  
Unfortunately, they ran into the biggest problem of a power outage possible.  
  
The only way to get down to the Labs and the Eva Docks was to take the elevator, which was down.  
  
Because no power, obviously.  
  
"So...what now?" Shinji asked.  
  
"I think there's an emergency stairwell nearby somewhere, but I'm not sure where," Rei frowned. "If someone wants to try to find it, I can try jumping into the shaft to grab onto the elevator cables and I could climb down to the next floor, get our plug suits, and bring them up."

"Normally," Asuka spoke up immediately, "I'd try to be a glory hog and do that myself, but..." She scratched at the tip of her nose. "Ah, well..." She clapped her hand on Rei's shoulder, "Good luck, Supergirl."  
  
"Thank you!" Rei grinned before clapping her hands together a few times in preparation.  
  
"Touji, why don't you come with me and we can see if we can find that staircase," Shinji began, "Asuka, Hikari? Want to stay here and keep Rei company while she climbs down?"  
  
"I'm fine with that," Hikari answered.  
  
"Yeah, sounds great to me," Asuka said a rather bit too eagerly, but nobody really noticed.  
  
"Alright then," Touji twirled his flashlight around. "Let's go find us a staircase!"  
  
As Touji and Shinji wandered off, Rei took a few steadying breaths before she grabbed at the elevator doors, and began pulling them apart.  
  
There was a creak, and a groan, and then the emergency latches realized that someone NEEDED the doors open and released automatically- causing the hydraulics to hiss as the doors slid open in a way that made the whole endeavor seem easier than it was.  
  
"Wow..." Hikari blinked a few times in surprise, but then just shook her head and then gave a smile and a thumbs up to Rei. "Good luck!"  
  
"Thanks," Rei blinked to turn on her night vision, centered her sights on the cables in the middle of the shaft, and then... "And a three and a four and a _**HUP!**_ " She jumped.

* * *

"So..." Touji began with a whistle as he and Shinji wandered the hallways, looking for a sign that said "Stairs."  
  
"So?" Shinji asked in return.  
  
"You're not going to ask me what me and Hikari were doing at school?" Touji asked, slightly suspicious of his friend.  
  
"We've got a little more pressing matters to deal with right now," Shinji answered. "You guys can keep your love life to yourselves or broadcast it to the world, and it wouldn't really change much right now."  
  
Touji just blinked for a few moments. "Well, okay then."

* * *

"Details~ Nowwww!" Asuka whined.  
  
"Come on, do we have to?" Hikari huffed crossing her arms over her chest.  
  
"One? I'm Bored." Asuka began listing things incorrectly, "B? It's the middle of the night and we've got nothing to do. Three? I'm Bored." She then leaned in close to Hikari and continued, "D? It means 'Detailz.'"  
  
"Are you alright, Asuka?" Hikari asked, blinking in concern. "You're acting a little...Weird."  
  
"Fifty Five," Asuka continued, "I have not slept at all since yesterday morning."  
  
"Well that explains a lot," Rei's voice echoed from the elevator shaft.  
  
Hikari sighed, "I'm inclined to agree."

* * *

"Woah, hey, did you see that?" Touji grabbed Shinji's arm suddenly.  
  
"See what?" Shinji scowled, looking ahead down the hallway of endless office doors.  
  
"I swear I just saw someone walk across the hallway just now," Touji replied with a hiss, sounding slightly scared.  
  
"I didn't see anything," Shinji continued staring ahead....And then there was a crash of sound that made both boys jump. "But I certainly heard that."  
  
They moved to investigate the sound of the crash, and discovered that something had knocked a closet door off of its hinges.  
  
"Well that's unsettling," Touji quiped.  
  
"Not as much as what's in this closet," Shinji reached in and pulled out the flattened sleeve of a Plug Suit, primarily shaded a forest green shade. "Plug Suits..." He counted briefly, "Five of them...!"

  
Touji glanced at the Red one, then the one that was in Milano's shades of blue and orange- "Aren't these your plug suits?"  
  
"...." Shinji blinked after a moment, then checked the suit in his colors by twisting the dial on the left arm. The same set of patterns emerged in the same order that he had put them in. "....Okay what the hell."  
  
There was a faint burst of static from a speaker above them- making both of them jump again at the sound.  
  
In response, Touji just quietly asked, "Did the scarry static just say....'You're welcome'?"  
  
"....We need to get back to the others," Shinji decided. "Now."

* * *

Rei was half-way down what she guessed was the right distance to NERV's main command center- Terminal Dogma.  
  
For the first time, Rei paused as she processed that name. Then, she fought back a laugh at how silly that name was, and resumed her climb down the cable.  
  
As she did, however, the running lights on the side of the elevator shaft- you know, the ones that really had no real logical reason to BE in an Elevator Shaft and yet all Elevator Shafts seem to have them?- flickered briefly.  
  
"What the...?" Rei frowned when the cables in her hands jerked suddenly. "...." Her eyes went wide for a few moments as her brain processed that event.  
  
Quickly, she looked for the nearest doors to the elevator- a bit further down, but she could probably make the jump from here now if she absolutely had- the cables jerked again and "Yup definitely going to make that jump now...!"

She started swinging on the cables- "And a five and a six... And a swing!" She leaped off of the cables- flying in mid air for a few moments before grabbing onto some edge sticking out of the wall- which actually happened to be the top of the door frame. During a brief surge in power- some sensor detects that Rei is blocking it, and the doors slide open with a warbled _DiNg._ And so with an "And seven...!" Rei swung her way into the floor just in time for something above her to let out a flurry of sparks and then---  
  
 _ **WOOSH!**_  
  
The Elevator Car went hurtling down the shaft towards the bottom floor.  
  
A few distant, terrifying moments later, there was a **CRASH.**  
  
"REI!? Are you alright!?" Hikari's voice called down after a moment.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," Rei called back up before breathing a sigh of relief. "Damn that was close."  
  
Rei looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened exactly. Lights were flickering slightly all over- it was almost as if whatever had disrupted the power to begin with had lost its grip on the system.  
  
If she could get the power back on then the elevators....wait, no, that was probably the only elevator in that shaft just now that fell to its doom.  
  
"Hope there wasn't anyone on it..." Rei frowned. She then turned to call up the shaft, "I'm going to go look for a stair case!"  
  
"Alright!" Hikari called down in response.  
  
And so Rei turned her back to the shaft and prepared to start her own search.  
  
She didn't get very far at all.  
  
Half across the room was a single light that seemed to be powered up more than the others- its blinking certainly wasn't as haphazard as everything else. But the fact that one light was on prominently wasn't really what concerned Rei.  
  
No, what concerned her was some vague humanoid shape flickering underneath that light, apparently made out of....  
  
"Static...?" Rei frowned at the strange specter of energy. Was this what was causing everything?

For a few moments, the shape of energy seemed to clear of the visible static that was obscuring it.  
  
Rei swore for a moment that she was looking in a mirror, if the mirror was able to put a dark green plug suit onto someone and disguise them in static, sure, but even then--  
  
Before Rei could really process what she was seeing, the specter pointed at a door to its right, and then the light above it clicked off with some finality.  
  
In fact, almost everything around her went back into its idle state.  
  
Rei blinked her eyes back into Night vision mode immediately- and ran towards the spot.  
  
The specter was gone, but the door that it had been pointing at?  
  
"Stairs," Rei frowned.

* * *

  
One reunion and a quick changing scene later, our heroes were finally heading down the stairs towards the Eva Launch lab.  
  
"You saw something too!?" Touji asked in surprise when Rei finished retelling the story.  
  
"Either the Angel is messing with us," Rei mused, "or someone else is trying to help us."  
  
"The fact that it got the plug suits out of the locker rooms probably says it's trying to help," Asuka frowned. "But how the hell did it make stuff start working?"  
  
"I don't know," Rei answered as they reached the launch deck, finding it full of inactive computers and empty of any living souls save the boy sleeping on a keyboard..  
  
"Kensuke!?" Hikari asked, surprised.  
  
...and a tired looking man slumped back against a cabinet that had a battery powered coffee pot on it.  
  
"...And my dad," Shinji blinked in a not-so-surprised way.  
  
Gendo looked up then- half asleep apparently- but gave a half wave that transitioned into pointing at the coffee pot that was counting down until it finished its current batch.  
  
_"About time you guys got here!"_ Rocket's voice echoed in from the docks. _"We've been sittin' here in the dark for a few hours now! What took you guys so long?"_  
  
_"I am Groot."_ Groot gave an answer.  
  
_"Shinjiii..."_ Milano's voice came out next in a low whine, even as Rocket started arguing with Groot over the obvious lack of power. _"Please make them stop. I can't get any sleep like this."_  
  
"They talk," Hikari gasped. "They all talk!? I thought it was only the red one that did that!"  
  
"Hahah!" Asuka pumped a fist into the air- "Superiority in the minds of others firmly established!"  
  
"Yeah," Shinji laughed, "I guess some introductions are in order." He looked at Rei, and she nodded to signal him on ahead while she worked on connecting Asuka's laptop into the computer system.  
  
And so he and Asuka lead Touji and Hikari out onto the walkway.  
  
"Everyone! Introduction time!" He clapped his hands, passing by the Evas in order. "Hikari, Touji, meet Rocket, also known as, Mister Orange Cream-sickle, the Sarcastic Racoon, and Evangelion Unit-00. He's, ah.... undergoing upgrades right now."  
  
"Well that explains the exposed metal beams on the right arm," Touji answered.  
  
_"Wow, Shinji, where'd you find these two at?"_ Rocket asked. _"Already suited up and everything! They're not going to be pilots, are they?"_  
  
"We just found the suits upstairs on our way down," Shinji answered. "Apparently NERV's haunted by a ghost and it gave us our plug suits."  
  
_"A...Ghost..."_ Rocket sighed. _"Well that's just _**great**_."_  
  
"Next up is Milano," Shinji moved down the ramp to Unit-01. "You guys met her already once, informally."  
  
"When you saved us from that giant eyeball, yeah," Touji nodded. "Yo! Thanks for the save!" he gave a wave.  
  
"Hi," Hikari waved and smiled as well. "It's nice to meet you finally."  
  
_"...Hello,"_ Milano said quietly, eyes sizing up the two students carefully. _"...You're...welcome."_  
  
"She's also sort of shy around new people," Shinji admitted. "Took a while to even-"  
  
"Yeah, great, introductions done!" Asuka cut in finally, moving down the ramp towards Unit-02. "THIS! IS! GROOT! Say Hi, Grooty!"  
  
_"I am Groot!"_ The Eva replied.  
  
"Is...that all he says?" Touji asked.  
  
Asuka scowled at him. "He's very verbose, I'll have you know! You've just got to know how to listen to what he's saying."  
  
_"ANNNYYYWAYS!"_ Rocket cut in. _"What's the situation up there?"_  
  
"The Eight Angel arrived in the middle of the night," Shinji explained the situation so far, "probably after the Seventh blacked out the entire city so the scanners didn't pick it up."  
  
_"What kind of Angel is it?"_ Milano asked.  
  
"Giant spider of some kind," Shinji answered.  
  
_"Freakin' GREAT. So now we've got a Ghost wandering NERV,"_ Rocket began to rant, _**_"AND A FREAKING SPIDER ANGEL TOO!? What the hell!?**_ Are we supposed to fight the Ghosts ON TOP of the Angels now? Is that what happens after we kill them all? We become the Ghostbusters!?"_ And then he let out an exasperated: _" _WHO YA GONNA CALL!?_ ...Us, apparently, because why not."_

Hikari laughed, and even Touji cracked a smile.  
  
"Hey, Shinji," Touji began, "how come you never told us that you had such a rich mine of comedy gold locked away down here before?"  
  
_"So...do we have a plan?"_ Milano asked.  
  
"We've got...part of a plan?" Shinji admitted with a shrug.  
  
_"How much of a plan?"_ Rocket asked.  
  
"I dunno, maybe....Fifteen, twenty Percent?" Shinji answered.  
  
Rocket let out a laugh. _"You call that a plan!?"_  
  
"Yes!" Shinji nodded. "It all depends on if Rei can figure out where the Seventh Angel cut the power grid at."  
  
_"I hate to break it to you Shinji but _**THAT IS NOT A PLAN!"_**_ Rocket laughed again. _"Oh...Man. Our Savior of the Dreaming Dead here, folks. Give him a big, old fashioned: Round. Of. Applause."_  
  
"Gotta agree with the 'Coon there, Shinji," Asuka nodded. "We do _**not**_ have a plan. They're contingencies at best."  
  
_"I am Groot."_  
  
"So what if it's better than Twelve Percent?" Asuka asked of her Eva. "It's still not a plan!"  
  
"Thank You, Groot!" Shinji held his hands out in appreciation.  
  
Touji just leaned over to Hikari and whispered, "So....is it just me or is it looking more and more like you have to be insane in order to be an Eva pilot?"  
  
"Sort of looks that way, yeah," Hikari agreed with a nod.

* * *

 

Gendo took a nice long sip of coffee, then shook his head out to clear away the metaphorical cobwebs. "So, the Eight Angel made a dome over the city?"  
  
"And is probably using it's A.T. field to mess with everyone's sleep patterns so that we wouldn't notice something was wrong," Rei agreed as she lightly pushed Kensuke (still snoozing in his wheeled office chair) across the room to where he wouldn't get in anyones way. "How come you're up?"  
  
"The Eight Angel forgot that I do not sleep," Gendo began in a grand tone, "I wait in perfect stillness."  
  
Rei gave him an incredulous glance.  
  
"Alright, I actually just got hungry while doing paperwork and went to raid a vending machine for Doritos," Gendo admitted, pulling out a rolled up bag of nacho cheese Doritos from his coat pocket and then placing them on a desk. "The power went out on my way back to my office, and so I came down here to see what I could do."  
  
"Which was coffee?" Rei asked.  
  
"Which was basically making as much coffee as I could to keep awake," Gendo confirmed with a nod. "Not an easy task, mind you. He was already asleep by the time I got here," that was said with a motion at Kensuke.  
  
"I see..." Rei frowned as she scrolled through the NERV database, which thankfully was accessible as a solid state drive through any working computer terminal, in this case, Asuka's Laptop. "Looks like the Seventh Angel cut the power by shutting off some relay switches on the twenty fifth floor..." She looked up at Gendo and asked him seriously, "Why did we put our primary and backup generators down on floor Fifty?"  
  
"It seemed like a good idea at the time for security reasons," Gendo shrugged.  
  
"Let me guess," Rei offered, "the same person who thought a single elevator and a staircase that could only be unlocked from the other side was a great security idea to keep people from finding the Evas?"  
  
Gendo glanced away to look out the window, "What beautiful weather we're having."  
  
He was dodging the question!!!  
  
Rei groaned and planted both of her hands against her forehead.

* * *

 

"Alright, so this is the plan, basically..." Shinji took a breath to explain. "While Rei's going down to the Power centers to get everything back up and running-" we cut briefly to a scene of Rei stalking down a long dark corridor with her eyes glowing and her laser shotgun in arm- "the rest of us will try to get Units 01 and 02 ready for launch."  
  
We inter cut to a scene of the four kids working to set Unit-01's entry plug. Shinji and Touji are manually moving it forwards via gear-cranks, while Hikari and Asuka make sure that it lines up properly.  
  
Gendo calls out for them to stop once they hear a locking sound- and then after a moment, the built in screw system starts pulling the Entry Plug into a set depth, although still accessible from the outside.  
  
"Once we've got that done, we're going to do a manual launch," Shinji continued on. "Hopefully Rei will have gotten the power back on by then, but if she hasn't, then we've got only one real option to get to the surface within the five minutes of battery time for the Evas." He then smirked, "And that's to steal a page right out of the Angel's playbook."  
  
"Either Unit 01 or 02 will create an A.T. platform at the base of the launch shaft," Gendo took over the explanation. "From there, the other Eva will climb on, and the platform will be accelerated up to the top of the shaft."  
  
"Or we could do both and just make the fields ourselves," Asuka suggested. Then, she realized, "Wait. Aren't I supposed to not even get inside Unit-02?"  
  
"Consider Misato's orders partially suspended...." Gendo said. "You can get in, but can't launch to the surface unless Shinji needs help."  
  
"Wait, does that mean I would've been able to go up if I hadn't said anything?" Asuka asked.  
  
"Maybe," Gendo replied with a faint smirk.  
  
"Damn it!" Asuka swore in normal Japanese to avoid paying up to the jar.

* * *

 

And so the operation began- with Unit-01 climbing up towards the surface on Unit-02's A.T. field plates.  
  
"Hey, Shinji?" Hikari began as she watched the progress monitor on Asuka's laptop screen.  
  
_"Yeah?"_ Shinji asked in return.  
  
"Do you have anything suitable for slow dancing in that mix tape of yours?" Hikari asked.  
  
_"Slow dancing...?"_ Shinji paused for a moment, _"Yeah, I've got something."_  
  
After a few minutes of climbing, He was at at the surface doors and was prying them open with a progressive knife. And then, a moment later, a [slow beat began playing through the intercom speakers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Rr9U0T5O4).  
  
Hikari turned to Touji and offered a hand, which he took in return with a smile.  
  
And then they began to dance.  
 _  
_I Must have been through about a million girls__  
  
Unit-01's speakers were also playing the song, that, plus the noise of the metal doors being pried open, drew the Eighth Angel's attention down towards the ground again.  
 _  
_I'd love 'em and I'd leave 'em alone._  
_  
And then the Angel grabbed at the metal doors and pulled them away in a mighty roar- Asuka then flung her A.T. field plate up high, like a spring board.  
  
Unit-01 threw the progressive knife straight into the Eight Angel's nearest leg.  
  
 __I didn't care how much they cried, no sir__  
  
Meanwhile, down below, Rei passed by a large orange lake of LCL in the Geofront on her way to the power station. She paused and glanced to her right for a few moments, before turning back on track to hunt down the Seventh Angel's clone.  
  
 __Their tears left me cold as a stone.__  
  
Her job done, Asuka looked through Unit-02's eyes into the launch deck to see Hikari and Touji continuing to dance.  
  
 __But then I fooled around and fell in love__  
  
Unit-01 slammed the Eight Angel down onto its back as it struggled in annoyance and dismay.  
  
 __I fooled around and fell in love__  
  
The Angel squirmed and growled as it thrashed its remaining seven legs and its two humanoid arms, but Unit-01's song based A.T. fields were keeping those legs from doing much damage to the Eva itself.  
  
 __I fooled around and fell in love__  
  
Shinji grit his teeth and slashed out with the prog. knife, cutting off another leg. The Angel roared and threw a web based A.T. field straight in Unit-01's face in return.  
  
 __I fooled around and fell in love__  
  
Unit-01 recoiled- throwing itself backwards from the attack as it reached an arm up to wipe away the annoying web.  
  
This gave the Eight Angel the chance it needed to roll over onto its front and then reassert itself on its admittedly slightly rockier footing.  
  
 __It used to be when I'd see a girl that I liked__

  
Touji held one arm up high, and Hikari began to spin underneath the arch formed between her own arm and his.  
  
 __I'd get out my book and write down her name__  
  
She smiled at him, and he smiled back as they rejoined both hands together and began stepping side to side.  
  
 __But when the grass got a little greener on the other side__  
  
Above- Unit-01 and the Eighth Angel struggled with a back and forth shoving match- massive powered arms pushing against spindly things that shouldn't have had as much strength as they did.  
  
 __I'd just tear out that page__  
  
And then Shinji smirked as he leaned backwards into a fall that turned into a spin and then WHAM!! - He kicked out another of the Angel's legs as it fell off balance.  
  
 __But then I fooled around and fell in love__  
  
The Angel went flying over Unit-01 and crashed to a stop atop the ruined metal plates that had covered the tunnel.  
  
 __I fooled around and fell in love, since I met you baby__  
  
Asuka just stared on as she watched Hikari and Touji continue to dance, completely at peace with the fact that if the world happened to end, that it would happen with them being together.  
  
 __I fooled around and fell--__  
  
Down below- the Seventh Angel Clone had no warning of what was coming save for the brief whine of a high pitched battery powered---  
  
 ** _PCHOOO!_**  
  
 __in love__  
  
And then it was incinerated by a laser beam.

 __I fooled around and fell in love__  
  
Rei's eyes blinked into glowing night vision mode in the pitch black darkness as she then moved into the room to begin restoring power to the Geofront.  
  
Meanwhile above Tokyo-3- the dome of webbing began to fall appart as Shinji dug his Progressive Knife straight through the humanoid chest of the Eighth Angel- right where its heart would have been if it had one.  
  
It didn't kill the Spider-hybrid angel, but it certainly made it mad enough to cause everything it had made around it to fall apart.  
Down below, Hikari and Touji continued to dance- and Gendo just smiled knowingly as he glanced between them and Kensuke, who was starting to wake up groggily due to all of the noise.  
  
Elsewhere in the city- the giant noises of battle were slowly waking other people up- namely a certain Misato Katsuragi who, dressed only in one of Kaji's dress shirts, tiredly opened up a window to look out into the city as the light of dawn broke through the dome and highlighted the smack down that Unit-01 was giving to the Eighth Angel.  
  
Misato just stared blankly for a few moments before deciding that there was nothing unusual about this at all and heading back to bed.  
  
Shinji and Milano were of one mind as the lights in the city began turning back on en mass, they reached out towards a building that was splitting open to reveal an Eva sized boat oar. What ever could something like that be used for?  
  
Unit-01 took the weapon and then swung it in a wide circle- clipping the Angel's humanoid neck with it and sending a cerulean colored fluid spewing out in all directions.  
  
The Angel's upper torso began thrashing wildly as it tried to mend the damage quickly with webs...  
  
Unit-01 didn't give it a chance and leaped forwards with the metal oar like it was a lance and-- SPLORCH! -- Ran the Eighth Angel's humanoid gut clean through from front to back.  
  
Down below in the Geofront, lights came on showing the current state of the battle, and even in Unit-02, Asuka got a visual of the surface battle for the first time as the city cameras turned on.  
  
Kensuke just scratched at the top of his head in confusion.  
  
Gendo just nodded in approval as his son proceeded to rip the humanoid torso off of the Spider-hybrid Angel- leaving only the spider body behind- not that it was in much of a state to do much fighting back at this point.  
  
And so the song continued to play on even as Unit-01 got the confirmation from the rebooted MAGI systems- _Eighth Angel Neutralized._ With a tired sigh, Shinji and Milano posed the Eva over the corpse of the Eighth Angel and watched as the sun rose over the slumbering city that was slowly waking up.  
  
Hikari and Touji didn't care- and only slowed their dancing for long enough to pull into a kiss that lasted for the time it took for the following lyrics to play:  
  
 __Free on my own, that's the way I used to be. But since I met you baby, love's got a hold on me__  
  
Asuka just closed her eyes, and feel asleep right there in the Entry Plug.  
  
Groot, had he a mouth to smile with, would have smiled as he quietly disengaged the synchronization with a single thought...  
  
"Pleasant Dreams."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caught up to current...ish. Chapter 9 is still in the final stages of completion, so it'll be a little while before I post it here.


	9. Crash and Burn

The sight was horrible. Unit-01's armor had been torn to shreds, and impaled with their own progressive knife.  
  
Dead.  
  
Unit-02 was not in any better shape- legs and back broken and barely running on battery power.  
  
And so they watched from the ground as Unit-05-- green paint scratched and scraped to hell and back-- let out an outraged roar and the back armor blew off with mild explosives.  
  
_"Give--"_ Rei's voice merged with Rocket's as massive black beams rose out of the back and began splitting apart. **_"Her--"_** Blue and yellow lightning began zapping across the unfolding wings as they flapped once and the four legged beast of an Evangelion took flight- **__"BACK!!!"__**  
  
The hover jets on the feet roared into life and then the Earth's last defense rocketed forwards at mach speed towards the humanoid, green colored beast of an Angel that stood over Unit-01's corpse.  
  
The pale face underneath the butterfly mask smirked, and the Angelic Administrator raised his right hand calmly and then pinched his index and middle fingers to his thumb.  
  
" **[[Faas Evenaar Fen.]]** "  
  
And then with a _**Snap**_ -  
  
Asuka Langley Sohryu awoke with a scream- panic overwhelming her for a few moments as her brain tried to make sense of the reality that was her bedroom making no sense to what she had just seen.  
  
Mere moments later- Shinji, Rei, Misato, and even PenPen barged into the room, all of them looking very concerned at Asuka as she tried to calm down from her current status of "Hyperventilating."

 

* * *

 

It had been almost two whole weeks since the Eighth Angel's death, and it had not been an easy time for anyone who had been awake during that dreadful night.

For the trio of Pilots especially, their dreams had been riddled with bizarre twists and turns. Rei's dreams involved visions of other worlds, her and Rocket exploring the cosmos alone and yet together. Shinji's dreams had become plagued by going to school in his underwear- yes, a classic, and yet terrifying in its own right as the rest of his classmates were not human (They were giant crabs).  
  
And Asuka...  
  
Asuka's dreams had ventured straight into pure nightmare fuel territory- a humanoid Angel that the MAGI could not identify with a green color scheme and lots of butterfly designs worked into his clothing.  
  
Yes, a city tall Angel was wearing butterfly themed clothing.  
  
Every time Asuka awoke, it was to a different battle set to a different kind of chaos that the creature had devised.  
  
Every time Asuka awoke, it was to the complete nightmare that was a total party wipe at that monster's hands and words.  
  
And whereas the nightmares had begun wearing and fading into nothingness for everyone else, Asuka's nightmares seemed only to be getting worse.  
  
"I know I sound like a broken record, but it's not helping much that you're not sleeping as often as you should, Asuka," Misato advised. "You can't be scared of these things, or it'll just keep getting worse."  
  
"Can't sleep, the butterfly will eat me," Asuka muttered as she jabbed her fork into her poached eggs.

Misato sighed. "I get it, I really do. Nightmares are scary things. They're the world's way of telling us something's wrong." She paused, "And while I'm glad you've stopped staying up late just to play video games, staying up late just sitting in bed isn't going to do you much good either. Shinji and Rei have slept through the worst of their nightmares."  
  
Rei took that as her cue to add in, "I got to punch evil bureaucrats in the face with nothing but the awesome power of a Fus Ro Dah!"  
  
Asuka flinched at the words- sniffing slightly.  
  
"Er..." Rei frowned as she realized that something she just said had set Asuka off. "I'll just... keep eating my omelet now..." And so she sheepishly began stuffing her mouth with egg and other food stuff in replacement of a metaphorical foot.

* * *

Two weeks since the last Angel attack, and the world had grown slightly complacent.  
  
Nobody doubted the raw power of the Evangelions as fighting machines, even before the Third Angel had attacked, which is why the Japan Heavy Steel Company took this rather long opportunity of peace time to schedule an unveiling of a device which could rival the Evangelions in terms of sheer power.  
  
Naturally, they only had enough cash to build one rather expensive prototype, and were hinging their bets on being able to recover all of their money (and then some) by selling the designs to the highest bidder.  
Naturally, NERV had been invited as one of the contenders to buy the technology.  
  
"Remind me again why we had to come along?" Asuka asked with a grumble as she fiddled with the hem of her military-like dress.  
  
"Because if we don't win this auction then you'll be looking at one of your competitors," Gendo Ikari explained- and yes, it was one of those rare days where not only was he seen outside of his office, but he was taking proactive measures to be seen outside and by the public and media.  
  
Naturally, Shinji and Rei were wary of something going very, very wrong. Both were wearing their plug suits underneath their clothes- also very military like suits. Unlike Asuka, however, Rei was wearing the same kind of outfit Shinji was- meaning no skirt and no obvious Plug Suit armor lines on her legs.

Half-sleep deprived by nightmares as she was, Asuka really didn't care to ask why they were doing it like this.  
  
Also, Half-sleep deprived as she was, Asuka really didn't care to ask why Rei had a halved version of her laser shotgun held in a holster strapped onto her right leg in very obvious view for anyone to see.  
  
It was painted yellow for crying out loud but meh, Asuka really didn't care to point out how glaringly obvious it was.  
  
Geezee, paranoid much, Supergirl?  
  
"So where's Misato?" Asuka asked, looking around for their meandering guardian.  
  
"Working the crowd," Gendo answered. "We want to know who our competitors are and how big of a check we'll have to cut to win this."  
  
"Makes sense," Shinji said, shrugging a bit to adjust his jacket.  
  
Asuka cast a glance inside, and was that a short-sword Shinji was carrying inside his jacket??? Yup, that was definitely a human sized version of a Progressive Knife- which really looked a lot more like a miniature Sword rather than a knife at this scale.  
  
Wow, paranoid much, Song-lord?

It would be another half hour before the official reveal, and so they wandered the outdoors merchants market that had been chosen to host this rather illustrious event....  
  
Back in Tokyo-2's out-skirted remains.  
  
It was like someone was expecting something bad to happen....  
  
 _'Oh, God,'_ Asuka paled, _'the paranoia is contagious!'_  
  
But as they walked past a small electronics shop, Shinji paused to look at the display of small, portable music players.  
  
There were classics brands like his Walkman (Now Digital! Wow! But Soooooo expensive for...."How many gigabytes?" he asked. "Sixteen," the merchant replied. Shinji figured that was a reasonable price but even so...) or the hybrid tape/disk players like the SDAT ("Wait, the batteries are sold separately??" Shinji frowned at the grinning merchant).... and then there were the completely ridiculous ones for dirt cheap prices.  
  
"EyePod" Shinji read the name on the battered little player. They had probably would have become a popular thing had Second Impact not happened. But like many things, the poor, square little thing without an interface screen had become relegated to niche culture.

But compared to the other players which the money grabbing merchant had decided to sell separately from their connectors and chargers, the little tiny iPod came with everything included and was cheaper than even the most recent version of the Walkman.  
  
"How much does it hold?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Eh? Not sure, I never could get it connected. Wants something called EyeTunes to synch with it but no copies of that survived Impact to my knowledge," The merchant shrugged. "It's basically just got what's on there. Some niche anime soundtracks."  
  
"Anime huh?" Shinji glanced over at Rei, and saw that she was currently distracted by staring at some high end Super Sentai mecha toy that had survived the Impact.

* * *

"Slowest...half hour...." Rei intoned flatly. _"EVER."_  
  
They were now seated at the front row of a large 'auditorium' of folding chairs underneath a large open sided tent that looked out over the ruined city. The Heavy Steel Company was running through their usual list of accomplishments up to this point, essentially a recap of history A "Then Versus Now" sort of thing.  
  
"So who are we dealing with here?" Gendo asked as Misato sat down with them.  
  
"Looks like the JSDF is interested," Misato answered. "I've counted at-least three different branches of them here. They might try outbidding each other just to get their hands on it."  
  
"Hnm," Gendo nodded for her to continue.

"A few U.N. goons are trying to blend in. They're not doing a very good job at it either," Misato tilted her head towards a few rows back, where some shady looking guys in black trench coats, top hats and sunglasses looked completely out of place in the early summer weather.

"SEELE?" Gendo asked.  
  
"Saw some other guys with their badges," Misato answered. "Looks to be separate from everyone else."  
  
"As for the rest?" Gendo continued his inquiries.  
  
"Mostly a few assorted billionaires that managed to keep hold of their stocks through Impact," Misato paused, "honestly I think they're here just for the novelty of it all."  
  
"But why invite them otherwise?" Gendo closed his eyes, lifted his glasses up and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "They might be backers for the various groups. More money to put into the project..."  
  
_"AND NOW!"_ A drum roll began to beat. _"WE PRESENT TO YOU THE PRESIDENT OF JAPAN HEAVY STEEL: MISTER THANOS HAMADA!"

An older man walked on stage to the sound of applause from the audience- both prospective buyers and merchants alike.  
  
Rei scowled slightly as she muttered, "I don't like his face."  
  
"Why's that?" Asuka asked in a whisper.  
  
"It's a stupid face," Rei's reply was simple.  
  
Indeed it was- covered in black paint and tattoos that tried way too hard to cover up his age- Thanos Hamada took the microphone on stage and spoke into it. _"Hello, everyone."_ His voice was booming and loud even without the microphone. _"I'd like to thank you all for coming out here on such short notice, however I think it will be worth it all things considered. As you all know, we have been working on a project the last few years after the Evangelion project's announcement, something that could either rival or support the fight against the many, disastrous creatures that now attack our world. No doubt after the last fight we've all had our doubts. How can we fight these creatures if they can sabotage our power supplies and make it impossible for us to fight them?"_ he held his arms out wide as the world seemed to shake from an impact. _"Then we make devices that are sabotage proof. Power supplies that do not rely on the city's power grid. I present to you the first in our Jaegar line ...."_  
  
The ground shook with another massive step- a leg came out from behind a ruined building.  
  
_"What we have decided to name...."_  
  
Following the leg was its owner: A massive, silver titan of metal armor and glowing eyes....and a massive glowing circle on the chest.  
  
 ** __"JET ALONE!"__**  
  
The massive, Evangelion sized robot continued walking out of the city before coming to a stop just at the edge of the lake that most people had ignored.  
  
_" _Jet Alone_ is an unmanned Robot running with the most afvanced A.I. short of becoming human....thus negating that human factor in situations where a human pilot would be impossible and inconsiderable to be used!"_ Thanos explained. _"It is powered with a nuclear reactor that alternatively serves as a massive fire spewing cannon for both attack and maneuverability!"_  
  
The _Jet Alone_ 's chest glowed brighter for a few moment, and then it reared its head backwards in mimicking of a roar--- and then a roar of burning flames shot out of the generator on its chest.  
  
_"And in situations where the A.I. is insufficient, much like the Nova Corps remote controlled jets, _JET ALONE **CAN**_ be piloted by remote control, such as right now!"_ Thanos turned to motion towards a girl who was walking on stage now wearing an interface helmet as well as interface gloved.  
  
She gave a wave, and _Jet Alone_ waved as well.

"Remote synchronization?" Rei mused. "That's interesting."  
  
"It's Just a lame rip off of our stuff," Asuka crossed her arms, her brain now fully running at 100% and not impressed at all.  
  
Thanos, meanwhile, concluded his narration of _Jet Alone_ 's many features, and flashed a grin at the audience, "And yes, ladies and gentlemen of the rich and powerful....you can own this technology all for your own." There were murmurs of contention among the audience. "Let's start the bidding price at...Ten thousand Dollars- U.S. Currency, just to use an international standard since I see quite a few foreign dignitaries here, less hassle for the price conversions that way. I'm sure you understand."  
  
"Ten thousand??" Shinji asked, surprised even as there were many yells of higher prices. "Isn't that a bit...low?"  
  
"Look at the crowd, Shinji," Misato began as someone called out "One Million!" "Whatever the final price is going to be, these people are going to be paying out of their noses to get this."  
  
"FIVE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED MILLION!"  
  
"What the what!?" Asuka's eyes widened. "Who the hell has that kind of money?"  
  
"Desperate folk," Gendo answered. "Very desperate folk."  
  
 **~Ten Billion.~**  
  
And then everyone froze at the booming, masculine voice that could not have been said over a whisper.  
  
 **~That is the total estimated cost for developing just one of these, is it not?~**  
  
Rei, ever so slowly, turned in her seat and looked out across the audience. There- at the back of the room- was what appeared to be a man in a bright red trench coat- with a rather wide brimmed, sort of raggedy looking straw hat resting on his head and covering his eyes.  
  
_"Er...Yes, yes it is,"_ Thanos answered. _"Is that your final offer...?"_  
 **  
~Your company will go into debt if this sale does not match that number, will it not?~** the man began stepping forwards- radiating an aura of fear and a presence that many felt necessary to flinch away from.  
  
_"That is to say..."_  
 **  
~What would happen if an attack happened right now? Would your little project be enough to put a stop to it?~** Rei could see the man's mouth. It wasn't moving- but it was shaped into a feral grin with many sharp teeth sticking out.

_"That is the entire point of _Jet Alone_ , mister...."_ Thanos paused. _"I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name."_  
  
 **~My Name?~** Then the man threw off his hat- revealing that his face was not human in the slightest- a massive blinking eye stared out from where two eyes and a nose should have been- his ears were elongated fins that looked like hands. **~I am the one who brings terror to the night.~**  
  
Rei reached for her holstered gun- even as Misato and other various body guards and security guards did the same.  
  
 **~Your plans and ambitions- their failure is my ultimate wet dream.~**  
  
And then the man dropped his coat- revealing that there was nothing there but a whirling mass of A.T. fields that were colapsing back into nothingness as the "man"'s head began to grow in size.  
  
 **~You May call me what my Father named me! MY _NAME.._.!~**  
  
And then it shot up into the air and tore a hole through the tent as it grew to giant proportions- guns would do little at this point against his size.  
  
 **~IS** _ ** ARAEL!~**_  
  
Misato's phone buzzed with a text message that she already knew what it read.  
  
 **_A.T. FIELD DETECTED. CODE BLUE CONFIRMED. NINTH ANGEL IDENTIFIED. CODENAME: MIND GAMES.**

 **~Hahaah! Run! RUN YOU LITTLE MAGGOTS! What are you waiting for!? CHALLENGE ME!~** Arael floated above them all as people began to run.  
  
 _Jet Alone_ stood still as a statue.  
  
 **~Is your little toy SCARED!?~** Arael continued to laugh- moseying on up to a comfortable distance to the giant robot and then settling in over its shoulders. **~You Maggots are pathetic! Your little toy does not scare me! And do you want to know why??~**  
  
"DO SOMETHING!" Thanos yelled at the girl who was wearing the synchronization armor- currently lacing up her boots.  
  
"Oh, I AM!" The girl snarled at him as she finished the tying process and stood up to begin synchronizing.

 **~It is because I know what you do not! It is because I am not working alone...unlike your little ' _Jet Alone_ ' here. HAHAH! Such a funny name!~**  
  
"We need to get to the base immediately," Gendo declared as he moved everyone back away from the Ninth Angel and towards an awaiting car that Section Two had just driven up for them.  
  
"Agreed!" Misato nodded. "So definitely agreed!"  
  
"SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE!" The girl in the _Jet Alone_ gear called out striking a pose that the _Jet Alone_ followed with- nearly knocking Arael out of position.  
  
 **~Oh hooo! So it decides to move?~** Arael settled in in front of _Jet Alone_ , spreading his tendrils out in a semi-menacing manner. **~Have at me then! Come on! Hit me with your best shot!~**  
  
"HIIIYAH!" The girl swung her fist through the air- and _Jet Alone_ followed through with a punch of its own...!  
  
Everyone watched with hope as the fist swung mightily towards the giant flying eyeball with wings....!  
  
And then stopped suddenly in front of Arael's 'face'.  
  
"Was it an A.T. field?" Shinji asked.  
  
"No...there wasn't one at all!" Rei stared on.  
  
"Then what just--!?" Shinji's answer came as Arael started laughing.  
  
And then soon after, so did the girl in the _Jet Alone_ control suit.  
  
"W...What!?" Thanos turned towards the girl as she doubled over in laughter, leaving _Jet Alone_ doing the same motions. "Miss Iruela what do you think you're doing!?"  
  
The girl- still laughing- turned to look Thanos in the eye and then spoke...  
  
 **~"I Who Am Hidden,"~** her voice echoed like Arael's- clearly being psychic at the same time that she was saying the words aloud. **~"The Infiltrator, the Hacker, the Manipulator."~**  
  
And then A.T. field wings spread from her back as she leaped through the air- reaching a hand out towards the fleeing pilots at the same time that _Jet Alone_ turned on its heels and too reached out.  
  
Rei drew her gun and fired off- a burst of a laser shot that was deflected by an A.T. field.  
 **  
~"YOU ARE FOOLS WHO TRUST PRETTY FACES AND PROMISING LIES!"~** _Jet Alone_ 's hand grabbed Thanos off of the stage and pulled back eve as the girl dove backwards from a sudden barrage of bullets courtesy of Section Two agents.  
  
She flipped through the air in a motion that _Jet Alone_ ignored, instead retreating back towards the still laughing Arael, and then she landed on the giants right shoulder.  
  
And then, with her voice clearly out of range, her thoughts continued.  
  
 **~I Am Binary! One and Zero!~** she held out her clenched hand, and _Jet Alone_ did the same, showing the tiny little Thanos clutched between fingers, looking very uneasy with the pressure being put on him. **~I control Life and Death! My name is IRUEL THE TERROR!~**  
  
 **~And I am the Light that exposes your fears- bringing them to the surface!~** Arael continued.  
 **  
~Together we will shatter your world and bring your pathetic concept of 'sanity' to an end!~** Iruel's thoughts echoed loudly.  
  
Arael's eye glowed brightly as he aimed at all the humans fleeing the area....  
  
 **~RUN! YOU PITIFUL MAGGOTS. RUNNNN!! AHAHAHAH!~**  
  
Thanos could only watch on in horror as a beam of white light shot out over his once assembled crowd.  
  
It was the last thing he ever saw before Iruel squeezed tight.

* * *

 

Back at the NERV Geofront- Ritsuko Akagi could only watch on in horror at the video feed and signals coming in from the Tokyo-2 site.  
Two Angels. Not even just like two weeks before when the Seventh had split apart into multiples... or even when a clone had assisted the Eighth with a follow up attack.  
  
But there were literally TWO ANGELS that appeared at the same time.  
  
One of them was a giant floating... energy.... THING. And the other was a humanoid girl remote piloting the _Jet Alone._  
  
They could come in human form now too? Ritsuko frowned. Well, it was possible given that Rei was essentially an Eva cloned into human size, and the Evas were cloned from the First Angel contained in the Geo Front....  
  
But damn. Damn Damn DAMN.

If that girl...no, "Iruel" as she had called herself, was really able to have disguised herself all this time... Hidden long enough to become the pilot for _Jet Alone_...?  
  
Then ANYONE could potentially be an Angel waiting to strike.  
It was a terrifying thought for Ritsuko, even as she watched the results of Arael's white light beam sweep's final effects.  
  
People were crying- hunched over and screaming about things that had not happened. Some were clearly in pain. Some more than others.

And then her phone rang. A check of the caller ID showed that it was Misato.  
  
"Yes?" Ritsuko answered with concern.

* * *

"Hey, Rits," Misato answered as she looked through the car window to the outside. "We're fine. Well, the Commander the Kids and I are....can't say the same for our Section Two pals, though."  
  
One of said agents slammed their hands against the window- crying about how her husband planned to leave her for another man.... Her brother, to be specific.  
  
Misato gave her a sympathetic smile and then returned to the call, "Looks like we got in the car just in time. We didn't get hit by whatever that Angel threw at us."

* * *

"A Faraday cage effect?" Ritsuko mused as she looked at the energy outputs. "Yeah, I can see that working. Camera feeds are showing some other survivors. What the hell was that blast anyways?"  
  
_"Looks like..."_ Misato's frown was audible. _"...Nightmares made real?? Natsumi-Chan from Section Two keeps going on about her husband leaving her."_  
  
"What?" Ritsuko blinked. "But didn't her husband die in a car accident...?"  
  
_"Along with her brother, yeah,"_ Misato sighed. _"She's saying he left her for her brother. I guess she's might have been concerned about that before we found the bodies but still..."_  
  
"So the Angel's beam brings out our hidden fears?" Ritsuko paused. "Huh. That's actually kind of mundane after some of the other shit we've seen."

* * *

"Yeah, well..." Misato grimaced as the ground shook from the hijacked _Jet Alone_ smashing through an abandoned building. "It's up there in the danger factor, that's for sure. We can't really evacuate these people with these Angels hanging over us."  
  
"How long would it take us to get back to the Geofront?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Too long," Gendo frowned. "Even if we could get there fast enough, there aren't any quick or easy ways to get an Eva down here to Tokyo-2."  
  
"So basically we're stuck here?" Asuka groaned. "That's freakin' fantastic!"

* * *

"Not necessarily," Ritsuko began. "I think I can get the MAGI to hack into _Jet Alone_ and activate the A.I."  
  
_"You can do that?"_ Misato asked.  
  
"Should be simple enough if we can piggy back on the synchro-suit signals." Ritsuko accepted a coffee cup from Maya with a thanks, then continued, "Then it's all a matter of getting the _Jet Alone_ to march to Tokyo-3, or take down the Angels on the spot."

* * *

"And in the meantime?" Misato asked.  
  
_"See if you can get the smaller one's attention. If you can take her out then that'll make my job easier,"_ Ritsuko answered.  
  
"You want us to go outside and risk getting our brains zapped??" Misato asked, shocked at the suggestion.  
  
_"You _Are_ in a car, aren't you?"_ Ritsuko's eye roll was audible through the tone of her voice.

* * *

"This is a stupid idea," Asuka griped as she followed Shinji and Rei in a sneaking path behind buildings and merchant tents that kept them out of sight of the two Angels.  
  
"It's the only one we've got," Shinj replied, right hand holding the progressive blade and left hand holding something small in his pocket.  
  
"Is your walkman even compatible with the loud speaker system they were using?" Asuka asked.  
  
"We'll find out when we get there," Shinji neglected to mention that he had left his walkman back at home, and instead would be relying on the hope that there would be something loud on the Eyepod that he had purchased earlier.  
  
They just had to find the speaker system that the Merchant's fair had been using to play some soft, usually ignored, background music, in addition to playing the _Jet Alone_ announcement to anyone who had not come to the demonstration.  
  
"Why am I even COMING with you!?" Asuka asked with a hiss. "You and Supergirl have weapons! I'm unarmed! I don't even have my plug suit with me! Why can't I help the Commander or Misato with evacuating everyone!?"  
  
"Someone's got to keep the player running," Shinji answered as they came up to a locked door marked 'Management.' "Rei...?"  
  
"On it," Rei slipped forwards and holstered her gun before reaching a hand up to the door handle. Then, in a repeat of two weeks ago, although this time visible, they watched as Rei focused for a moment before a flash of orange emerged from the lock, and the mechanism turned slowly, apparently of its own accord to the casual observer.  
  
And then...  
  
 ** _Click!_**  
  
Rei pulled the handle and the door opened.  
  
"A.T. field keys," Rei chuckled, "gotta love it."  
  
"You have got to teach me how to do that someday, Supergirl," Asuka said with a bit of awe.  
  
They entered the management room, and found it to be empty save for the man cowering underneath his desk whimpering about clowns, apparently having ran inside and locked the door behind him after being hit by Arael's mind beam.  
  
He paid the Pilots no mind, however, as Shinji went over to the P.A. system and looked at the available connections.  
  
"So what's the plan here?" Asuka asked. "You two run out and get squashed under the Angel's feet?"  
  
"Basically?" Shinji sighed as he found a cable he liked the looks of and pulled out the small mp3 player from his pockets to see if the connection worked.... It didn't, and he resumed looking for another wire. "Something like that except we try not to get ourselves killed."

* * *

Iruel looked out across the plaza from the shoulder of _Jet Alone_. **~These humans are just ridiculous...It'd be pathetic just to kill them all while they're like this. Where's the fun in that?~  
  
~There really isn't any.~ ** Arael mused as he idly smashed through an abandoned building. **~I wonder what's taking those pilots of theirs so long? Surely we're not truly that far away from the Black Moon?~  
  
~Actually, I do believe that we are,~** Iruel mused, lifting her hand to stare at the red splatter on _Jet Alone_ 's hand. **~If I recall, the blood stain on my hand wanted to be as far away from Tokyo-3 to prevent such an attack like ours from happening.~  
  
~Gaining access to these maggots computer systems was a stroke of genius on your part, my love.~** Arael cooed. **~If only you were able to convince them to move closer, we might not have to wait as long.~**  
  
 **~I only had two weeks to establish a cover identity,~** Iruel shrugged. **~There was only so much sway I could have.~**  
  
 **~Hrm.... These maggots and their feeble sense of time. They cannot even see the mangled threads of Tabris' deal messing with the reality around them.~** Arael rolled around idly, and then launched a small, controlled mind beam into the small lake that _Jet Alone_ was still standing in. The fish in the water all began throwing themselves around as if they had all suddenly been taken out of the water and were suffocating.  
  
 **~Speaking of Tabris, where did they get off to, I wonder?~** Iruel mused.  
 **  
~That impudent tyke probably--~** Arael was cut off as a loud shriek of feedback filled the air.  
  
 **~OH what the-~** Iruel's swearing had no translatable match in Japanese. **~-Was that!?~**  
  
 **~Hmm....~** Arael searched the city landscape...

* * *

 

Asuka grimaced as she looked at the tiny little player now hooked into the P.A. system.  
  
"Good luck!" Shinji offered before ducking out through the door along with Rei.  
  
Auska, alone save for the cowering man, took the opportunity to let out all of the creative swears that she had been holding back to avoid paying out to the jar, then hit the play button on the small little eyepod.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
Asuka stared at the player for a moment before hitting the play button again.  
  
And again.  
  
And Again!

* * *

 **~Well, I guess it was nothing...~** Arael said mere moments before a laser blast shot past his eye. **~OH WHAT NOW!?~** he whirled in mid air and glared at the direction of the laser shot.  
  
There, standing dramatically ontop of an abandoned pickup truck, was Rei Ayanami, aiming her little laser gun up at him with a determined look on her face.  
  
 **~Say,~** Iruel began, **~Isn't that one of the pilots?~**  
  
 **~You tell me,~** Arael answered. **~You're the one who's been living with the humans the last two weeks.~  
**  
Iruel cracked a grin. **~Then I wanna play!~**  
  
 **~That is probably what she wants.~** Arael mused. **~Let me blast her.~**  
  
 **~No way! She's _MINE!!_ ~** Iruel yelled, and with that, she leaped off of _Jet Alone_ 's shoulder and dove towards Rei with A.T. field wings.  
And then Rei smirked.  
  
Iruel glanced to her left as she passed by a window- and there was Shinji holding a bag of flour just behind--  
  
 _FWHUMP!!_  
  
\--A Freaking heavy duty air-conditioning fan that he literally just dumped the flour into, creating a large cloud of smoke that obscured Iruel's vision and made her start coughing and hacking at the sudden irritants in her lungs.  
  
Arael withheld any snarky comments at this turn of events, and let his companion suffer through her folley, but you could just feel the smug aura radiating off of the bastard as he observed what happened next.  
  
An what happened next was Rei firing off another laser blast.  
  
 **FWHOOOOOM!**  
  
Iruel was engulfed in a fire ball as the flour ignited- and she screamed.

[ __Zankoku na tenshi no you ni__](http://youtu.be/rt4zTczforY)  
  
And then the MP3 player finally played- as _Jet Alone_ suddenly slumped over as if it were a puppet whose strings had been cut, or more rather, whose strings had suddenly been yanked out of its control. In the Geofront, Ritsuko dared to let herself smirk.  
 _  
_Shounen yo, shinwa ni nare...__  
  
Iruel's screams of anger emerged as a dozen A.T. fields shredded the smoke ball that had just briefly been a burning ball of flames, revealing that most of the _Jet Alone_ Sync Armor had been destroyed with that last stunt, along with a fair portion of the clothing underneath- revealing that her skin had been turned rather red from the sudden ignition. It must have been worse inside the inferno, because even as we watched, her skin began to heal over. (Angel Biology at its finest, ladies and gentlemen.)  
  
Rei smirked, and she turned to run.  
  
Iruel didn't even bother trying to attack Shinji (He had already run off), and flew after Rei.  
  
 _ **~"I WILL KILL YOU!!!"~**_  
  
 __Aoi kaze ga ima mune no doa wo tataitemo,__  
  
Shinji skipped down the stairs, heading for the nearest exit, only to have a hand grab his shoulder as he ran past a broom closet and pull him back inside- there was a brief flash of blue light and the sound of an electric ZAP, and then no-one was there.  
  
 __Watashi dake wo tada mitsumete Hohoenderu Anata__  
  
Rei ran around a corner as she holstered her laser gun, and grabbed the Progressive Blade from where she and Shinji had left it.  
  
 __Sotto Fureru mono, Motomeru koto ni muchuu de,__  
  
Back in the Geofront, Ritsuko let her smirk widen as she finished her remote hack, and brought _Jet Alone_ 's A.I. back online.  
  
And indeed, behind a slightly bemused Arael, _Jet Alone_ started to stand back up.  
  
 __Unmei sae mada shiranai itaike na hitomi__  
  
The roar of the Nuclear Engine made Arael turn around in confusion-- and then was hit firmly in the snout by _Jet Alone_ 's Superiority establishing punch.

 __Dakedo itsuka kizuku deshou Sono senaka ni wa__  
  
Iruel threw A.T. field blades straight at Rei, but she dove around another corner to avoid them- leaping up onto the back of an abandoned car, and then flipped over a merchant's stall onto the other side of the street.  
  
 __Haruka mirai mezasu tame no Hane ga aru koto...__  
  
Iruel blasted through the stall and had to flap her wings to stall to a stop to prevent crashing into another stall. Rei was running at full speed down the street towards some unseen destination. Iruel scowled- and then tore off after Rei.  
  
 __Zankoku na tenshi no teeze__  
  
Arael threw up A.T. fields left and right in attempts to block _Jet Alone_ 's furious, Elbow Rocket enhanced punches.  
  
 __Madobe kara yagate tobitatsu__  
  
There was a flash of blue light and another ZAP, and suddenly Shinji landed flat on his back on a table in the middle of the Eva launch lab, much to the surprise of everyone there, Shinji included.  
  
"What the f-!?"  
  
 __Hotobashiru atsui patosu de Omoide wo uragiru nara__  
  
Iruel leaped at Rei, and shoved her to the ground in a tackle that lead to them rolling across the ground rapidly about a dozen times before Rei got to her feet and leveled the blade at Iruel, who dismissed her A.T. wings to create an A.T. field sword.  
  
 __Kono sora wo daite kagayaku__  
  
Both girls leaped at each other and then clashed blades even as above them, _Jet Alone_ firmly wrapped its arms around a dazed Arael, and began to squeeze down tight.  
  
 __Shounen yo, shinwa ni nare__  
  
Meanwhile, not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Shinji was stripping off down to his plug suit as he ran down the catwalk to get to Unit-01, which was being prepped for battle right that moment.  
  
At the same time, Milano was watching a live feed of the battle going on with Arael and _Jet Alone_ as she tried to learn everything about this battle as she could in the short time they had to launch.  
  
Arael was struggling against the increasing pressure- firing off mind beams into the robot in a desperate attempt to get it to let go.  
  
Instead, all Arael was managing to do was piss off the A.I. royally to the point of it activating its chest engine's thruster mode.  
  
Arael screeched as the heat built up rapidly- and then began to spew out, clashing against hastily created skin tight A.T. fields that weren't lasting very long.  
  
Rei and Iruel continued to clash blades down below- with Rei's borrowed Progressive Blade cutting through Iruel's remaining clothes and ruined synch armor with ease. Other damage seemed to be superficial, healing up almost as soon as blood was spilled.  
  
Rei grit her teeth and then drew her gun out when she had a moment of opportunity- Iruel yelped and spread her wings again to gain as much distance away as possible.  
  
Rei began to run back down the street as she fired off random blasts in an attempt to keep the Tenth Angel back.  
  
It was enough to keep a safe distance, at least, while Rei headed to her destination.

 __Zutto nemutteru watashi no ai no yurikago__  
  
Asuka meanwhile, just stared out the office door as she watched the Arael Vs. _Jet Alone_ fight.  
  
"What...is even..." She blinked.  
  
 __Anata dake ga yume no shisha ni Yobareru asa ga kuru__  
  
Unit-01 was launched up to the surface of Tokyo-3, at the furthest edge of the city's launch points.  
  
"How fast can an Eva run?" Shinji asked as he got the Eva into a crouched position, ready to run.  
  
 __Hosoi kubisuji wo tsukiakari ga utsushiteru__  
  
_"Dunno,"_ Ritsuko answered truthfully, _"We've never measured it."_  
  
"Then I guess we'll be finding out then," Shinji answered as he braced for the ejection of the Umbilical Cable, and then he and Milano took off at a run from a dead stop with what registered to most people as a sonic boom.  
  
 __Sekai juu no toki wo tomete__  
  
Ritsuko just blinked as the numbers came in- "Well that's Mach... _ **ONE!?**_ From a _**dead stop!!??"**_ her jaw fell open.  
  
 __Tojikometai kedo...__  
  
 _Jet Alone_ threw it's arms out wide suddenly, and Arael briefly thought the Robot was letting it go.  
  
 __Moshi mo futari aeta koto ni imi ga aru nara,__  
  
Arael was wrong- and he felt it as a burning burst of fire nearly as bright as a solar flare burned through his A.T. fields- his skin- and then began to broil his Core whole.  
  
 __Watashi wa, sou, jiyuu wo shiru Tame no Baiburu__  
  
 **~NO! THIS CANNOT BE H ---!~**  
  
The Core Cracked- and then exploded, taking Arael with it and knocking _Jet Alone_ flat on its back into the pond.  
  
 __Zankoku na tenshi no teeze Kanashimi ga soshite hajimaru__  
  
Iruel turned on her feet, turning her back to Rei for but a moment- "NO! THEY ACTUALLY--!" and then Rei drove the Progressive Blade straight through Iruel's back, right where the heart would have been.

And then Rei was shocked as Iruel's body dissolved into a field of blue mist that shot up into the air and flew into _Jet Alone_ 's head.  
  
 __Dakishimeta inochi no katachi__  
  
"What!? Where's the core!?" Rei yelped as Iruel's mental laughter filled the air.  
  
 __Sono yume ni mezameta toki__  
  
Ritsuko swore as she received a signal of _Jet Alone_ 's A.I. suddenly going offline again.  
  
 __Dare yori mo hikari wo hanatsu Shounen yo, shinwa ni nare__  
  
And then _Jet Alone_ began to stand up on its own as the source of Iruel's A.T. fields were finally identified now that Arael's weren't covering the sensors.  
  
The source was _Jet Alone_ 's head.  
  
And just as the MAGI relayed this information to everyone in NERV, Unit-01 appeared with the sound of a sonic boom- landing a flying kick straight into _Jet Alone_ 's armored back- utterly crushing the Nuclear reactor inside in what was probably a safe manner.  
  
 __Hito wa ai wo tsumugi nagara rekishi wo tsukuru__  
  
But that wasn't the end of it- _Jet Alone_ suddenly flipped over with Iruel's A.T. field wings and spun around to throw a punch at Unit-01.  
  
 __Megami nante narenai mama Watashi wa__  
  
Milano's reflexes saved them and they ducked the attack before drawing out a Progressive Knife and thrusting it into the burning remains of that chest reactor--  
  
 ** __ikiru~~~~!!!__**  
  
\--and then dragging the superheated blade straight up through the chest into the head of the giant robot- melting everything that was in its path.

 __Zankoku na tenshi no teeze Madobe kara yagate tobitatsu__  
  
 _Jet Alone_ stumbled backwards in surprise from the partial bisection- and then could stand no more as Unit-01 spun around and they cut across at where the waist met the broken chest--  
  
 __Hotobashiru atsui patosu de Omoide wo uragiru nara__  
  
\--and then the two parts of _Jet Alone_ 's upper torso fell apart into the water pool- sending steam flying upwards as the sudden heat entering the cooler liquid.  
  
 __Kono sora wo daite kagayaku Shounen yo, shinwa ni nare!!__  
  
But just in case any kind of Nuclear Melt Down occurred- Shinji and Milano threw up a giant A.T. field dome over the remains of _Jet alone_ \- and just in the nick of time too, as the remains of the robot in the water exploded- showering the inside of the dome with water and a bright flash of orange light that....  
  
That suddenly shifted into a blue hue before vanishing along with the A.T. field itself with another _**ZAP**_ , leaving Shinji staring at what should have been the remains of _Jet Alone_ inside of his shield.... but he hadn't dropped it, and there was nothing to stare at.  
  
There was nothing at all where a small lake should have been.  
  
Just a crater that was quickly filling up with water from the ocean.  
  
"....Huh," Was all Shinji had to say to that.  
  
Milano then asked, "Did it self destruct?"

* * *

 

Hours later, back at the NERV Geofront...  
  
"I-" Ritsuko breathed dramatically- "Have NO CLUE what the FLYING F-!"  
  
"Ahhem," Misato coughed politely.  
  
"Flies..." Ritsuko coughed before regaining her composure. "I really don't have any idea what happened to Jet Alone."  
  
"It just disappeared," Shinji mused. "Surely something's got to be behind that."  
  
"Maybe the ghost we saw a few weeks ago?" Rei offered.  
  
"Maybe....but wasn't that all static effects though?" Shinji asked. "Whatever threw me back here was with a blast of blue light though, and so was whatever disappeared that Jet Alone."  
  
"Whatever it was," Asuka threw her hands up into the air, "obviously it was there to help us get rid of the Angels. So what's the big deal? I mean, I'll admit I'm mad they decided to grab Shinji instead of me, but still.... We would've died without a way to get an Eva on the..." She paused- "Hey, Shinji, how DID you get there so fast anyways?"  
  
"Unit-01 ran at Mach one," Ritsuko answered the question.  
  
Asuka blinked- "Huh. I betcha Groot and I can run at Mach Two! Wanna test that, Wonderboy?"  
  
"Maybe later," Misato cut that root off before it could, well, take root, and then changed subjects. "So basically we can write this one off to sheer luck."  
  
"That's excluding the possibility that it was another Angel," Ritsuko countered.  
  
"You think an Angel's helping us clean up other Angels?" Misato asked, an eyebrow raised incredulously.  
  
"The fact that Shinji was flat out TELEPORTED straight into this very room with no trace of an A.T. field-" Ritsuko began to explain her theory, "-Plus the fact that we've failed to pick up A.T. fields on the last few Angels until after they've chosen to reveal themselves, the lack of a field really doesn't mean much at all..." She sighed. "Look, the fact of the matter is that the Angels have completely broken all the rules that we had for them. One at a time? Pft~ Now we've got two at a time! We make a giant robot to fight them and can survive a mental egg-scramble? Now an Angel posssess it not only through us giving it the keys but also by literally just hijacking it. What's next? An Angel tries possessing one of the Evas directly??"  
  
"Hey," Misato sounded very annoyed, "don't jinx us, Ritz!"  
  
"Sorry, but I've got to be concerned when Iruel could appear as a human!" Ritsuko rubbed at her forehead. "God, the fact that we can't even detect their A.T. fields means that anyone could be an Angel, and the fact that they're completely changing tactics....Maya? I need a coffee. Stat!"  
  
"Sorry! We ran out of coffee beans," Maya apologized, "I sent Someone out to get more."  
  
"Gruuuhhhh...." Ritsuko face palmed. "Well she'd better be quick about it!"

* * *

_"Gendo,"_ The Twelve Obelisks were active, but the French one was speaking. _"Please, maybe you can enlighten us why the Dead Sea Scrolls have flat out disappeared save for a single note card with a simple phrase..."_  
  
"I could enlighten you," Gendo answered, "if I knew what that phrase was."  
  
A Holographic image appeared in front of Gendo- clearly a photograph of a note card left in the center of a circle of many opened brief cases (that Gendo knew the old men never kept in that formation. Someone was being cheeky). The note was a simple, eight by six poster card with blue lines along most of its length, save for the single bold red line across the near top which stopped all blue lines from crossing.  
  
It had a stamp in that white margin indicating that the card had been purchased from the "Dadly Depot," whatever that was.  
But the rest of that side was blank.  
  
Gendo raised an eyebrow, "I do believe that it was purchased from the Dadly-"  
  
One of the Obelisks grumbled and obviously clicked a mouse- changing the image to the backside of the card.  
Gendo narrowed his eyes as he looked at the image of what was very obviously the backside of the card. It was plain white with a simple message scrawled on it with an incredible, glowing ink.  
  
Gendo could tell it was glowing because the file type of the image was listed by the hologram as a ".JPG" and yet the entire image was brightening and dimming as if the image were animated.  
  
"Well," Gendo coughed as he read the message over. "I do believe it's fairly straightforwards."  
  
_"Please, Gendo,"_ The British Obelisk said, _"enlighten us."_  
  
"Well, the picture says it all, really," Gendo held back the urge to laugh. "The Angels no longer care about the script so this thief, the one who signed it below as "KH", has redacted our script as well."  
  
_"And you can inferr all of this from two words and a signature!?"_ The Obelisk of the mastermind questioned.  
  
Gendo reread the picture- two words and a signature indeed.  
  
 **[You're Welcome - KH]**

 

* * *

 

  
"Well," Misato began once all four of the apartment's residents had just simply crashed on the couch in front of the TV, "today was a day."  
  
"Tell me about it," Shinji sighed.  
  
"So what was with the new music?" Misato asked. "That was an interesting song."  
  
"Bought an MP3 player at the market," Shinji answered.  
  
"How come?" Asuka asked.  
  
"Yeah?" Rei asked as well, smiling slightly.  
  
"Well," Shinji pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the small little object. "I was going to give it as a birthday gift for someone."  
  
"Ah!" Misato laughed. "That explains it."  
  
"Whose birthday?" Rei asked.  
  
"Nobody soon," Shinji admitted. "Also, I've got some work to do with it too. Gotta figure out how much it holds and how to get new stuff on it too.... So the timing works out, I think."  
  
"That's nice of you, Wonderboy," Asuka said before getting up onto her feet. "But really cheesy. Really? A music player? How much did you pay for that thing anyways?" She held up a finger as Shinji opened his mouth to answer, and then, mocking holding a microphone, she continued, in a sing-song tone, "I~ Don't~ Careee~!"  
  
And with a flourish of her hand to dismiss that imaginary microphone, Asuka skipped off towards her room.  
  
"Did...." Rei began after a moment, "did Asuka just sing at us?"  
  
"I think she did," Shinji replied.  
  
"I'm more concerned by the fact that she's skipping," Misato blinked. And then after a moment, she then said, "Alright, so who wants pizza for dinner?"  
  
"I don't have to cook?" Shinji asked, hopeful and curious all in the same sentence.  
  
"Tis the implied action when mentioning pizza, and who wants it," Misato then grinned evily at him. "Unless you want to make us pizza fresh from scratch!"  
  
"Uhhh..." Shinji's brain went into lock down- 'LIE! LIE! ABORT! ABORT MISSION! RUN AWAY! RUN VERY FAR AWAY!' -and then he flat out lied, "Sorry, but I never learned how to make pizza."  
  
"Daw," Misato pouted. "Fineeeee. Take out it is!"  
  
"Whew," Shinji let out a breath of relief.  
  
That was one disaster adverted.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the story caught up to current. Spell check just up and died on me at the end of this chapter, so some typos might have slipped through my watch. Sorry about that.


	10. INTERMISSION

Your name is Mana Kirishima. You are Nineteen Years Old, and you have an Internship at NERV that you work instead of going to college.  
You have no clue how your life got so out of step with your dreams.  
  
Quite literally, starting when you were three, your dreams became those of other worlds, other lives, other yous that lived lives so vastly different and terrifying from the pleasant life that you lived instead.  
  
Second Impact changed many things, but you, it seems, were left behind while the world spiraled out of control.  
It's enough to drive someone mad, if they saw these things suddenly, without any real explanation. But you? Oh you grew up in step with multiple worlds. Worlds where Second Impact occurred in so many different ways. Worlds where Second Impact happened again and again with no differences at all.  
  
Your dreams were the things people would dream for.  
  
And you live the most boring live an Intern could ever live.  
  
You're not even a dedicated Lab Assistant like Doctor Akagi's favorite pet Maya, or some smart tech guy like Makoto.  
  
You're just the random anyone, "Someone," that gets called for random jobs and reads stuff off of the monitors.  
  
You blend into the background and most people just pass you by like you're a piece of the background.  
  
How many people know your name, you wonder? Probably not many people. That's just how you like it.  
  
The Pilots are interesting, you think. But you knew more about them than you realistically should have before even meeting them.  
  
At ten a thirteen year old you dated a thirteen year old Shinji Ikari while he was only seven in this world- a world that he didn't even know your name of.  
  
It had been a fantastic sort of daydream growing up. A way to make reality better...and then often times worse.  
  
You thought it fiction, stuff you'd dreamed up in your dreams....  
  
And then you actually landed a Job at NERV.  
  
And then you watched as a sixteen year old Shinji Ikari climbed into Evangelion Unit-01 and sang the Third Angel to death.  
  
And then you watched. You watched as everything you had ever dreamed of went off of those meticulously planned rails.  
  
Angels that you had never seen before.  
  
And then Angels that you had seen- but doing things that you'd never expected them to do.  
  
Arael came down from his lofty perch?  
  
Iruel took the form of a human girl?  
  
And then you began to worry.  
  
As the weeks passed after the Ninth and Tenth Angels attacked (Wrong Numbers. Those were the Wrong Numbers.) you began to worry. You began to dream of the other yous that weren't human.  
  
The Other Yous who were Angels.  
  
And then in a panic you realized what you were.  
  
You were two different people from two different possible outcomes just thrown together and mix-mashed into something that wasn't right.  
  
More Angels passed- and you felt an itch. A sense of order.  
  
You told the Pilots who you were- what you were- what you didn't want to do.  
  
For breaking an already broken sequence of events- your FATHER decided to punish you.  
  
He came from above- tall and empowered with his garish clothes.  
  
And then he locked you away and forced you to watch as he tore the Evangelions apart.  
  
You watched as Shinji and Milano were torn to pieces.  
  
You watched as Asuka and Groot were broken and forced to watch just like you.  
  
You watched as Rei and Rocket sproted wings and charged at you with a roar....  
  
 _ **"[[Faas Evenaar Fen.]]"**_  
  
...and then fell to the ground, lifeless, all will drained out of them.  
  
And then your father, A.D.A.M., let you go.  
  
He let you fall to the ground, and you cried.  
  
You cried as he marched on forwards and tore through the Geofront- smashed through everything and everyone that you worked with.  
  
He went to initiate Third Impact.  
  
But it never came.  
  
You heard your father's enraged roars as someone....something prevented him from reaching Lilith.  
  
And then you heard the sounds of battle.  
  
Another voice- another being.  
  
 _ **"Gap Ryushi Hou!"**_  
  
And then you saw lasers flying- you heard your father exerting more effort than he had even in the battle with the Evas.  
  
Something was making your father fight more than he had all in what you had just witnessed.  
  
And you felt an aura.  
  
That thing fighting your father was not good.  
  
The Aura of power was nothing like what you knew from the heroic Evas.  
  
There was no music powering him to an end goal.  
  
There was nothing but an ever present drum beat.  
  
"He won't be able to pull it off," a voice spoke from behind you.  
  
"W...what?" You turn around, and you see a girl.  
  
She couldn't have been any older than any of the pilots.  
  
Her hair was red- a redder red than Asuka's orange- crimson and flowing long like twin streams of blood.  
  
Her eyes were just as red- but it was not the color of blood spilt cruelly. It was the color of blood that was a strength and a bond between friends.  
  
Her clothes made no sense for the world around her.  
  
There was dust and debris and smoke everywhere and her clothes....  
  
A pristine, untouched, school uniform the design of which you had never seen before.  
  
It was out of place.  
  
Everything about her was out of place.  
  
Everything- even the small microphone hung around her neck with.... shoe strings??  
  
She wore no shoes, just the socks.  
  
Even those looked way too clean for walking even a few inches anywhere.  
  
She walked forwards towards you, explaining, "That demon won't let him initiate Third Impact. The timeline that results in me depends on it, even if he doesn't know it yet. He has his own plans, and they don't account for my influence....but they do, at the same time."  
  
"Who are you?" You ask.  
  
"I can't tell you that, Leliel." And then she says it- that name. That name of that thing that sends ripples through your body, threatening to unleash a transformation that even now you struggle to hold at bay.  
  
"Why are you here then?" You get to your feet, you don't have the energy to cry now. You hear your Father crying out in pain as you get the mental image of those damned Lances flying through the air.  
  
"You don't have Time to change anything," the girl seems happy despite delivering that death sentence. "I'm here to give you a fighting chance."  
  
She walks towards you, and you get an increasingly WRONG feeling about her. A Feeling of Out of Place from this girl who just does not belong and yet....  
  
And yet the parts of the Angel sharing your brain is intrigued.  
  
This is something new.  
  
Something unseen.  
  
Something....  
  
 _ **\----EXCITING**_  
  
She offers her hand.  
  
You take it.  
  
And as the world around you begins to glow a shade of very bright blue....You turn your head over your shoulder and you watch as a demon made out of some strange white, almost liquid crystalline material, rises out of the Geofront with the impaled corpse of your father slung over his....quadruple shoulders.  
  
You see a hourglass on its chest before you hear an electric **_ZAP_ -**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup. That's Chapter 10. I've been debating about how to do this scene since the beginning. Do I put this as Leliel's chapter's opening gambit or do I put it sooner and risk Spoiling things? Also, who would Leliel be? Someone named? Someone unknown?
> 
> In the end, I decided on a hybrid of both. Every mention of "Someone" in the background doing something was literally Mana/Leliel doing it. A bit of a misdirection due to text format. If this were an anime, we would have seen that consistently on the screen.
> 
> If you've read any of my other works, you might have an inkling of what I'm aiming for with the endgame. Lemme just say here with this chapter that I want this story to be as standalone as I can make it, but can be a bit more enjoyable knowing other things from those other stories.
> 
> Also, if you *have* read any of my other works, I'm going to give the warning here that events are about to go into the very...very interesting territory that I seem to be fond of. This is going to be an interesting ride from here on out, given that the regular Eva anime takes a nose dive into the "WOAH WHAT" territory right around here as well.


	11. Highway to Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the heat of Summer, tensions are high, and lava is hot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who added this story to the XWAU02 Collection/Series? I'm pretty sure it wasn't me, as A: I don't remember doing it. And B: I have not made any permanent decision on whether this story belongs to that collection or not. There is a very good reason why it wasn't in the collection before and it's still a very good reason why it'd been booted for the time being. 
> 
> I get the feeling that whoever did it was probably trying to help but please, don't force my hand, please.

It was nearing to the first month mark after the last two Angel attacks, and ever since, a mandate had been in place for the working Evas to have Pilots within easy access just in case of an attack.  
  
But now it was starting to get into the summer months (Not that one could tell, as the weather seemed to be at a stand still since Second Impact), and the school's class was scheduled to head to the hot springs and beachfront.  
  
Rocket was still undergoing repairs and modifications (it was the legs. They had to make room in the eva dock for Rocket to stand in there with four legs instead of two, and now that that was complete, they could finally start putting the new legs on) and so Rei was not required to pilot until those repairs were finished, and was free to go on the Okinawa trip along with the rest of the class.  
  
The rest of the class, that was, except for Shinji and Asuka.  
  
Predictably, Shinji was happy for his kinda-sorta-sister. (He even went shopping with her, citing having done the same with his cousin many times before for why he should help over Asuka's offer.)  
  
Predictably, Asuka was Angry and Loud about everything. (Pretty much everyone in the Evapartment wore earplugs for most of that day, even PenPen. And Nobody wanted that spilling out into the shopping district.)  
  
And so the fateful day came- Shinji made pancakes for breakfast, and soon after, Hikari and Touji showed up to pick Rei up and travel together to the bus stop.  
  
And thus, Asuka Langley Sohryu was left on the couch in front of the TV during the first day of what otherwise counted as a school-free week with absolutely nothing to do.  
  
Misato soon left for work, and not a minute later, Shinji was [playing music.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmrX4nhEdZY)  
  
Loud enough to be heard all the way from his bedroom.  
  
And so with a grumble, Asuka got up from her spot on the sofa and began making her way into the bedrooms hallway.  
  
 __I'm not in love. So Don't forget it. It's just a silly phrase I'm going through.__  
  
Asuka stopped part way and scowled.  
  
 __And just because I call you up. Don't get me wrong. Don't think you've got it made.__  
  
What song even was this about. She walked the rest of the way to Shinji's bedroom door and stopped there.  
  
 __I'm not in love. No, no. It's because...__  
  
Asuka raised her hand to knock, then stopped.  
  
 __I'd like to see you, But then again, that doesn't mean you mean that much to me__  
  
Asuka's mouth opened slightly. "What." Her entire time here in the apartment, and she had never heard Shinji playing this song before.  
  
 __So if I call you; Don't make a fuss. Don't tell your friends about the two of us.__  
  
A part of Asuka wanted to think that Shinji was playing this in some passive aggressive gesture. But really, why would he do something like that? Asuka shook her head and pulled her hand away from the door.  
  
 __I'm not in love. No, no. It's because...__  
  
And then there was a sudden lurching sound of tape abruptly began run in fast forwards, as if Shinji didn't want to hear the rest of the song.  
  
Now That was enough to make Asuka simply open the door without knocking.

  
Shinji had been fairly successful in keeping his room locked most of the time- and despite her best attempts, Asuka had not yet gotten even with the boy for abruptly entering her room on the night of the Eighth Angel's attack.  
  
Ironic, really, that all of those times had been while he was not trying to fast forwards through a song, distracted just as much as she had been on that night  
  
And so Asuka got her first look into the private inner world of Shinji Ikari.  
  
The bedroom was surprisingly clean for the most part, despite however long Shinji had been living here, it didn't seem like he had settled in much. A school uniform was the only thing hung in the closet, where-as the rest of Shinji's clothes seemed to be shoved rather poorly in the dresser in the corner. There was a small bookshelf by the door, and seemed to be loosely filled with a few picture frames and some random plastic things.

  
At the foot of the bed, Shinji had set up some kind of makeshift desk out of the night-tables that were matches to the ones on either side of Asuka's bed in her room. He was currently sitting in an office chair that had a leather jacket strung over its back, and was definitely busy fast forwarding through that walkman tape.  
  
On top of that desk, however, was a small laptop with a battered pale-white case, and connected to it was a familiar little MP3 player.  
  
"Don't like that song?" Asuka asked as loudly as she could.  
  
"YAH!" Shinji let off of the tape's fast-forwards button, leading it to squeak back into line.  
  
 __~~ It's because...__  
  
And then he hit the stop button.  
  
Shinji spun around in his chair and glared at Asuka, "What are you doing in here?"  
  
"You were in my room," Asuka replied, "it's only fair!"  
  
"It was pitch black and a I barely saw anything," Shinji countered, "meanwhile it's day time and you're trying to look at everything."  
  
"And you're avoiding my question," Asuka countered his counter. Shinji didn't answer, instead spinning in his chair back to face the laptop. "Sooo....What're you working on?"  
  
"Uploading music," Shinji answered matter-of-factly.  
  
"You got it working?" Asuka asked, peering over Shinji's shoulder to read the screen...  
  
...What the ever loving chocolate fudge cake was even the language being displayed?  
  
"Webdings," Shinji bitterly answered the question that Asuka quickly realized that she'd said aloud.  
  
"You can read that??" Asuka asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"No, actually," Shinji scowled. "I accidentally triggered some program the previous owner of the music player left in it for an incorrect access password and I've been trying to sort this out ever since."  
  
"Is there something important on it?" Asuka asked, looking at the small player that evidently didn't like being synchronized improperly.

"Who knows," Shinji grumbled. "All I've managed to get from this program is that the programmer signed their work "Kai." I think it might be some kind of benign malware intended as a joke. I'm going to have Ritsuko take a look at it later, maybe the MAGI can sort through this."  
  
"Who makes a virus change the language display??" Asuka asked with a frown, deciding then and there never to let that music player connect with her computer.  
  
"I dunno, but Rei got a good laugh about it when I told her about it," Shinji sighed, and massaged at the bridge of his nose. "This computer isn't even mine and I've got to get this sorted out before I have to return it."  
  
"Whose computer is it?" Asuka mused on the thought for a moment. The computer was probably Pre-Impact in age.  
  
"Kensuke's dad's," Shinji answered. "Apparently they kept it around for sentimental sake, since the production company went out of business in the Impact. Kensuke thought I could get further with it when I mentioned the specific program requirement."  
  
"And?" Asuka pried for more info.  
  
"And I got a password prompt and ended up screwing over the language settings," Shinji answered with a sigh.

  
Asuka grimaced slightly- "Ouch. Smooth move there, Wonderboy."  
  
"Yeah yeah, rub it in," Shinji sighed yet again.

* * *

 

Asuka spun in her own little office chair as she tried to kill time.  
  
Her room was like an actual lived-in bedroom as opposed to the hotel-room like cleanliness that Shinji had left his in. There was chaos, but contained. Her desk was covered in computer stuff and various college level books. Her bookshelf was used for more books as well!  
  
"Books are Awesome," Asuka repeated her motto from her college days. "Books are God."  
  
Books also were boring when you'd read through them all a thousand times.  
  
Pestering Shinji again was likely out of the question for the moment, and so... Out of pure curiosity, Asuka looked inside Rei's bedroom. It was an exact mirror of Shinji's in terms of the room build, as well as just about everything else. Rei's bed was half-made, sheets tossed haphazardly into place, and in fact, that theme carried over to everything else.  
  
It seemed like some carefully contained system had finally given up- sending everything into chaos. Papers covered the walls (which actually had been painted a deep shade of orange of all colors) and each paper either had all sorts of colorful drawings of the Unit-00 redesign or had drawings of various creatures and robots that seemed to be made up of those various creatures.  
  
"Now What do we have here...?" Asuka picked up a sketch from Rei's desk, showing a knight like robot with a giant red V on its chest, and a pair of jet wings on its back. Its shoulders had a beetle head and a wolf head as shoulder armor, and the sword seemed to be made up of star-shaped creatures. "...Shaouto...mon.... Kurossu faive?" Asuka struggled over the UN-characteristically messy kanji that Rei had written down. In fact, it so was UN-characteristically messy that it veered straight into the overly-stylized territory. Looking at it like that, plus how good Rei's artwork seemed to be getting lately...  
  
Asuka then picked up a notebook that was simply marked "ship."  
  
Approximately five sentences into the random page she chose, Asuka dropped the book back onto the table with wide eyes and a slack, wide open mouth.  
  
"Wh.... What did I just read?"

* * *

 **[ERROR*: Five Attempts? Really, Nya? You're not guessing my password at this point.]**  
  
Shinji's eye twitched at the displayed message (*=Translated from Wing/web/dings!) changed to something new from his latest drive access attempt. At this point, he was pretty sure that it was a hybrid of two different symbol fonts that was being displayed, which actually was a lot more clever (and evil) than a straight up font replacement.  
  
He was sure it said something important, but if he could read it...?  
  
"Sigh," he sighed. "Why are you being so difficult? Why couldn't you just let me access the music on here?"  
  
It was then that the phone rang. Shinji ignored it for another password attempt.  
  
"Hello?" Asuka answered the phone. "Eh??"  
  
 **[ERROR: Six Tries, Nya. The irony is that you can't even read any of this. Otherwise you'd know that the password is actually PASSWORD TROLOLOL JK.]**  
  
This time, the computer program seemed programed to laugh at him.  
  
Out of frustration, he hit a scramble of keys and hit enter.  
  
 **[ERROR: If you actually figured out what I said, and tried it, yeah, no, that actually wasn't the password. Whoops. My Bad. Actually, no, not my bad. RETURN MY IPOD ASAP, NYA.]**  
  
"OI! Wonderboy!" Asuka knocked at the door, "Misato wants us at NERV ASAP!"  
  
Shinji sighed, "Fine." And with that, he snapped the lid shut on the computer, putting it into standby mode as he unplugged the mp3 player.

* * *

"We figured out what the A.T. field of a sleeping angel looks like," Ritsuko said with glee. "Or, at least, what one preawakening looks like."  
  
"So we know where an Angel's about to pop before it pops?" Asuka asked, sitting up with attention.  
  
"We think so," Misato nodded.  
  
"So where is it?" Shinji asked, arms crossed and dreading the answer.  
  
"Lemme guess, underwater?" Asuka smirked. "That's just fine! I can take it on anywhere anywhen!"  
  
"I'm glad you said that, Asuka," Ritsuko got an evil grin on her face. "Because it's right where I've suspected they've been all along!"  
  
Shini blinked- "Wait, you don't mean--?"  
  
"Just tell me where the Angel is and I'll dive right in and get that core!" Asuka puffed her chest out. Finally, ACTION!  
  
"It's in the core of an active volcano," Ritsuko answered with glee.  
  
"Alright! That's awesome!" Asuka cheered.  
  
Shinji slid over to Maya, who was consulting with some random intern on the subject of the broken language settings on the laptop, and whispered, "She wasn't actually listening, was she?"  
  
"Well..." Maya looked over as Asuka eagerly agreed to every facet of the operation before Misato and Ritsuko even finished explaining what the plan was. "No, actually, I don't think she is listening," she answered as Ritsuko mentioned that the Eva's Lava Dive equipment should be functional up to temperatures of 4,000 degrees Kelvin.

Asuka just stared blankly for a moment before replying, "Awesome! But it's not going to get that hot so we should be fine!"  
  
"So what exactly happened to this?" The intern asked.  
  
"Er, well..." Shinji glanced at her badge, seeing that the intern's name was Mana Kirishima. "The MP3 player I was trying to synch it to had some anti-theft program on it. It scrambled the language setting when I tried the wrong password."  
  
"Ouch," Mana grimaced. "Who comes up with stupid ideas like that?"  
  
"Who knows," Maya replied with a shrug. "Someone who doesn't like their stuff being stolen, I guess?"  
  
"Which makes you wonder why they'd sell it to a merchant without removing it first," Mana lamented. "Maybe they lost it during Second Impact, I guess?"  
  
"Maybe," Shinji sighed as his name was called. "Looks like duty calls." He went over to talk with Misato and Ritsuko. "What's up?"  
  
"You'll be surface control, and back up in case another angel attacks the surface while Asuka's underground," Misato answered.  
  
"Sounds like fun," Shinji replied sarcastically. "When do we start?"  
  
"As soon as you're suited up," Ritsuko answered.

* * *

Rocket watched as the technicians attached a series of lava-resistant armor plates to Unit-02.  
  
_"I am Groot."_  
  
_"Quit your whining,"_ Rocket countered. _"You'll survive. It's just a little molten rock."_  
  
_"I am Groot!"_  
  
_"So what if it'll be hot? We're freaking giant robots designed to fight monsters who can change reality! Just put some A.T. fields up that make the heat disappear."_  
  
_"I am groot."_  
  
_"Wha'd'ya mean you can't do that?"_ Rocket would have raised an eyebrow if he could have. _"Even I could put a field up right now if I wanted to."_  
  
_"I am groot."_  
  
_"UH...huh."_Rocket looked to Milano, _"Did you understand what he meant by that?"_  
  
Milano said nothing in response, as Asuka's loud yelling was all the answer needed.  
  
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY PLUG SUIT!?"  
  
Asuka came marching out of the changing room looking like she was wearing heavy duty Wrestling armor that had been attached to her Plug suit, or rather, actually were part of her plug suit.  
  
She looked like her suit had inflated like a balloon.  
  
Rocket held back the desire to laugh.

* * *

The reasoning, of course, was that even if Groot's new armor could survive the high temperatures of lava, the LCL inside the entry plug would still super heat to the point of being uncomfortable for the pilot, and so the Plug Suit's "Extreme Weather" Mode had been activated.  
  
"I don't like it," Asuka griped as she settled into the Entry Plug, "I don't like it one bit at all!"  
  
_"So is there a low temperature mode too?"_ Shinji's voice echoed over the intercoms as Asuka waited for the LCL to rise.  
  
_"Yeah, low, high, and even a few bits in place for a space mode, not that it was ever completed,"_ Ritsuko answered. _"The plug suits are fairly versatile all things considered. Former Military project, and all that."_  
  
_"So they made a mode for lava diving??"_ Rocket asked. _"Whose bright idea was that?"_  
  
_"Scientists who actually planned to stand near an active volcano rim rather than diving into it,"_ Ritsuko laughed. _"Before Impact, it was thought that if radio controlled drones were losing signals over an active lava field, then there needed to be a way to get observers as close as possible without them melting. Ingenious, really, but Second Impact basically made all the different sites too unstable physically. Even if we could get someone up there with a heat-proof suit, the ground is just too unpredictable and unstable to have someone stand there to observe."_  
  
"Wait," Asuka interjected as the LCL reached her chest. "You're sending me into a volcano where the ground is unstable!?"  
  
_"Well, yeah,"_ Ritsuko said with an audible nod (Earrings? When did she start wearing those??). _"You're the one who agreed to everything, Asuka. It's too late to back out now."_  
  
_"Hey, I'd be glad to go lava diving instead if you want to trade--"_ Shinji stopped as soon as he heard Asuka growling at him like an angry little Pomeranian telling someone to get away from their bowl of food. _"...Never mind."_  
  
_"I am Groot."_ Groot sounded pleased at Asuka's display of territory defending.  
  
"Why thank you, Grooty!" Asuka smiled, even as the LCL reached her helmeted face, and flowed in through some temperature regulator valves designed to lower the temperature to something safe for human consumption.

The whole helmet was sort of like a gas mask to filter out oxygen from poisonous or noxious fumes, except for LCL temperatures.

All in all, amazing technology, even if it made Asuka look really stupid in it with the "enhanced" plugsuit.

* * *

Not less than half an hour later- the two Evangelions were strapped to the bottom of two VTOL helicopters and were being flown in towards the very active volcano that had once been Mount Fuji.  
  
For anyone who remembered how the mountain looked once upon a time, the current sight was vastly different- a massive crater full of molten rock lay where a towering peak once stood. In fact, if one were to drain all the lava out and look at the shape of the caldera holding it all, they would realize that it was just as deep as the mountain had once been tall.  
  
Shinji whistled, "Wow, so this is the Fuji Caldera? That's a lot of lava."  
  
_"Oh please, Wonderboy,"_ Asuka's face appeared in the corner of his vision via holographic imagery, although there was some static indicating some interference in the transmission, even at short range. _"I've seen bigger."_  
  
"Like?" Shinji raised an eyebrow.  
  
_"Antarctica, for one."_ Asuka's answer sounded boastful.  
  
"You've been to Antarctica?" Shinji asked.  
  
_"Well, not as close as this,"_ Asuka admitted. _"But still, you can't get that close to the smoldering crater that Antartcia is as you can to this. There's like this perpetual lightning storm overhead, plus all he noxious gasses being pumped out into the atmosphere..."_  
  
"Speaking of," Shinji voiced his concern towards NERV, "Milano and I are going to be okay out here, right? We're not going to choke or anything, are we?"  
  
A small icon appeared in his vision reading "No visual" before he heard a static-overlapped radio message from NERV.  
  
_-- _ **KZRRT**_ -"-Should be able to breathe-"- _ **SSSSHHH**_ _ Misato's voice was nearly inaudible underneath the static. _VRRR-"Oxygen filters-"- _ **SERRRHHHKKKK**_ -"he helmet without losing-"- _ **SRRRPP**_ _  
  
"Uh....Misato? Hello? Anyone there?" Shinji tapped at the No Visual icon, and it just shook at him angrly along with a loud buzz of static. "I can't hear a single thing you're saying."  
  
_ _ **BZFRRRRT!**_ -"-am, I can't hear wh-"- _ **ERRRRKKZZZ**_ _ then the little icon changed from "No Visual" to "No Signal" as the audio cut out entirely.

_"What the hell was that?"_ Asuka asked with a growl.

"Probably the radio interference Doctor Akagi warned us about," Shinji frowned. "We'll probably be on our own for most of this."  
  
"Isn't that ominous?" Milano thought aloud.  
  
From the video feed, Shinji could see Asuka literally bite back a comment by biting down on her lower lip.  
  
Shinji didn't have anything to say that would have eased up on the tense pressure that had settled over the four of them.

* * *

The VTOL pilots thankfully knew the plan before hand- lowering the two Evangelions down to the ground, along with a crane winch and two external thermal power generators.  
  
Unit-01 was retrofitted with extra battery packs at the moment as they set up the necessary machinery.  
  
Unit-02 stood there decked out in the Lava Dive armor, tapping a foot impatiently with arms crossed over the chest.  
  
However, everything was set up properly, and the two Evas were hooked up to the thermal energy generators that were siphoning raw heat out of the active volcano and transforming it into electricity for the Evas.  
  
And thus began the operation.  
  
"Beginning mission..." Shinji breathed out as he started the winch that began lowering Unit-02 into the volcano.  
  
_"Just keep an eye on that cable, wonderboy,"_ Asuka warned, _"if that breaks, I'm sunk."_  
  
"I know, I know," Shinji rolled his eyes as he watched Unit-02 slip beneath the lava's surface.  
  
_"I am Groot!"_ Groot's audio was mangled with static.

_"I know it's hot, just bare with it for now..."_ Asuka's video feed began breaking up more and more the further she descended into the Volcano.  
Shinji took a few deep and heavy breaths in the LCL as the minutes passed.  
  
Milano started to get antsy even as Asuka ranted on about some random subject or another- mostly about how boring the inside of a Volcano was.

The pressure of the situation continued to build.  
  
_"Alright,"_ Asuka called out finally, _"I'm almost to the Angel's A.T. field signal. Visual in thirty seconds..."_  
  
Shinji tensed up, hands gripping tightly around his controls at the same time Milano did the same around the Winch controls.  
  
_"Twenty..."_  
  
And then an email notification appeared in the corner of Shinji's vision.  
  
"Oh what now..." Shinji scowled as he reached out to open the message.  
  
_"Fifteen..."_  
  
The message opened slowly- with a twisty and turny ancient looking Hourglass pixel animation- and then the text showed up with a "Ding!"  
  
_"Ten Seconds..."_  
  
Shinji's eyes widened. "OH CRAP!"  
  
_"What the hell!? Where's the Angel!?"_  
  
The email read a simple message:

 **_A.T. FIELD DETECTED. ELEVENTH ANGEL CONFIRMED. SHINJI! LOOK UP!_**  
  
Shinji looked up- and then Milano's reflexes saved them yet again as they dove to the side to avoid a giant fireball smashing down from the heavens above.  
  
Unit-01 hit the ground and rolled to a stop just as that fireball smashed into the crane that was to recall Unit-02- melting and destroying quite a lot of it in a single strike.  
  
"Oh crap oh crap--" Shinji gasped for breath as Asuka began swearing at the sudden jerking of the line....  
  
_"What's going on up there, Wonderboy!?"_  
  
The line that now was quite literally starting to fray and if it broke...!  
  
And then something emerged from the wreckage of the crane- what had been thought to have been a simple fireball was actually....  
  
_"OI! THIRD!"_  
  
"Oh Motherless goats of all motherless goats..." Milano whispered quietly.  
  
...Was a giant scorpion with blood red skin and a piercing gaze with the heat of a thousand suns.  
  
It chitered quietly for a moment before a loud BOOM echoed from above.  
  
 **~The Inevitable doom. Your insatiable curiosity.~**  
  
Shinji and Milano looked up at the parting smoke cloud from the volcano- an A.T. field was clearing the smoke away to reveal that a massive creature was staring down at Shinji from mid-orbit.

 **~You who would dive into burning rock in an attempt to get a foot ahead....you leaped when you should have looked.~**  
  
It was a giant beast similar in design to Arael, but bigger- and more...more.... it was just _ **MORE.**_  
  
It was a giant eye with two energy 'hands' that were full of.... eggs?  
  
No, not eggs.  
  
More Scorpions, uncountable in their spherical form but clearly all being held firmly in the Eleventh Angel's grip.  
  
 **~I am Sahaquiel, and my Children- the _Sandalphon_! -will feast on your entrails...and _DEVOUR YOUR SOULS!!~_**  
  
Then the Eleventh Angel seemed to spin once before launching another of the spheroid Scorpions straight through the back of its hand like it was some kind of launching device.  
  
The "Sandalphon" accelerated quickly and ignited in its descent towards the earth below- It's target?  
  
Unit-01.  
  
_"Shinji!? What's going on up there?!"_ Asuka cried out, sounding very panicked. _"Oh crap...I think I saw something moving...! **SHINJI! _GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!"__**

* * *

 

Shinji did not reply.  
  
Unit-02 was stuck floating in lava and Shinji was not replying at all.  
  
Asuka started to panic.  
  
"We're going to die, we'regoingtodie, weregoingtodie..." The thoughts raced through Asuka's mind like a whirlwind.  
  
"I am Groot!"  
  
Inside the LCL filled helmet, Asuka felt a tongue run up the side of her cheek.  
  
"Huh..?" Asuka blinked, and there, floating next to her, was a ghostly image of Groot, as he had been years and years before being put into the Eva as it's soul. "Groot.." She smiled and put her arms around the ghostly image. For a few moments, she sat there in the plug, hugging Groot and trying to calm back down.  
  
And then out of the corner of the Eva's four-eyed vision, something swam past.  
  
Asuka snapped to attention. "Alright...so there're two angels. One down here, one up there...." She breathed out all of her stress and focused on the situation around her. "Can't see shit through this stuff..."  
  
Indeed, lava was not transparent like water.  
  
"There's got to be a way to see...." She closed her eyes and shifted through the various modes that the Eva could see through. Thermal? Useless. Infrared? No way. Night vision? 'HAHAHWHATAREYOUTHINKINGASUKA!?'

  
Sonar...?  
  
"Sonar could work..." Asuka opened her eyes, and her vision was filled with the swirling colors of the lava currents.  
Swirling...?  
  
Something large moved past her left side- and Asuka swung out with a kick.  
  
Lava, it should be noted, is moderately thicker than water.  
  
Unit-02 started to tumble a bit from the sudden resistance.  
  
"Scheiße," Asuka grit her teeth as the power cord went taught and pulled her back a bit. If the cable line was broken then the power cord was the only way for her to pull herself back to the surface.

* * *

 

"ASUKA!" Shinji yelled after he got a moment to focus on something other than dodging scorpion pincers- specifically the moment where he utterly shelled the Sandalphon that had been thrown at him with his progressive knife. "Are you alright!?"

* * *

  
"I'm a little caught up with some stupid shellfish thing circling me like a damned shark down here," Asuka glanced side to side as she watched the "thing" continue to circle like a shark. "What's going on up there?"

* * *

 

"The Eleventh Angel's name is Sahaquiel," Shinji reported as he jumped onto the back of a charging Sandalphon and leaped across onto a large rock just in time to avoid another Sandalphon smashing into the ground where he had been standing moments before. "This whole thing was a trap from the start."

* * *

 

"So I DIDN'T dive head first into a volcano for an Angel then!?" Asuka turned sharply as the 'shark' ventured a bit closer. "What the hell is down here with me then!?"  
  
_"Sahaquiel called them Sandalphon,"_ Shinji reported. _"They're basically giant scorpions."_  
  
"Guess that means you know how to take them down then?" Asuka guessed.

* * *

 

  
"Rei told you about the giant crab thing--" Shinji paused mid sentence to leap over a Sandalphon's stinger tail (The pseudo Angel even dared to yell "Beware my stinger tail!" in a mutilated attempt of raw English)- "didn't she?"  
  
_"Yeah, I thought she was joking honestly..."_ Asuka replied. _"Guess the joke's on me then. Tips?"_  
  
"If you can?" Shinji drew out his Progressive Knife and slashed off the tip of the same Stinger Tail as it went for round two, then he grabbed the tail in mid air, twirled it around into a backhanded grip and then jabbed it straight into the Sandalphon's head with a "HRRAH!" followed by, "Aim for the joints in the armor! The flesh underneath is really weak, I guess Sahaquiel's making up for raw strength with sheer numbers..."  
  
 **~SO WHAT IF I AM, _HMM!?~_ ** Sahaquiel yelled down like an irate mother. **~They're only CHILDREN, _you monsters_!~**  
  
 ** __~"OH, LIKE YOU'RE MOTHER OF THE YEAR, GLADYSK!!"~__** Milano yelled up at the floating angel both aloud and with a slight twist of Psychic energy to make sure it carried- "You're the one shooting your demon spawn at us!!"  
  
Shinji raised an eyebrow- "Taking lessons from Rocket are we, Imouto-chan?"  
  
"And Rei, a little," Milano admitted, the mental image of a child glancing away with a blush on her face appearing for a moment.

* * *

 

  
"Alright as amusing as that little outburst was," Asuka chuckled slightly as she watched the Sandalphon circle again, "I don't think my progressive knife is rated for lava."  
  
"I am groot!" Groot reminded Asuka of the Four thousand degrees Kelvin number.  
  
"Oh, right," Asuka went to face plam- only for her hand to smack against the plexi-glass of her helmet. "Doy! Forgot about that."

* * *

 

"Anyways, we're going to have to synchronize this," Shinji continued on as he pried open a Sandalphon's back plates and drove his Pallet Gun into the exposed, pink flesh.  
  
 **BANG BANG!**  
  
The Sandalphon let out a death cry, and flopped onto the ground.  
  
_"Got any plans, Sherlock?"_ Asuka asked.  
  
"One-" Shinji replied, eying Sahaquiel. "And that's using the Sandalphon as stepping stones."  
  
_"I see where you're going with this,"_ Asuka appraised, sounding pleased with the plan. "So if I get it to come at me--"  
  
"How well do you know my song lyrics?" Shinji interrupted.

* * *

  
"Uhhh..." Asuka blinked for a moment, and in that moment- the Sandalphon struck out with a claw- knocking Unit-02 back by a few paces. "IS THIS REALLY THE TIME FOR THIS!?"

* * *

  
"We'll synchronize our attacks based on the music!" Shinji didn't have time to sigh as he roll-dodged an attack. "Moonage Daydream?"  
  
_"What??"_  
  
"Want you back?" Shinji offered another song title as he fired off a few angry warning shots at Sahaquiel.  
  
_"What do you mean by that!?"_

* * *

 

_"Oh It's Magic?"_ Shinji offered again.  
  
"Maji--" Asuka blinked- "OHhhh!!!" and then she cracked a slight grin. "Okay, yeah, now THAT is a classic I don't have any problems with."

* * *

 

"Then on three," Shinji thumbed the button to release his power cable. "One..."  
  
"Two!" Milano crouched down.

* * *

["THREE!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzlK0OGpIRs) Asuka reached for the shoulder pylons and tore out her Progressive knives...well, more like Progressive Axes given that they were clearly of a hatchet-like design rather than sword-like design for better use in a molten environment.  
  
The Sandalphon clearly took that as a cue to head straight towards her with a roar.  
  
 __"Oh, Ho, Ho, It's magic, You Know..."__ Shinji began singing as Unit-01 detached the power cable ([-4:59]) and leaped as far up as the Eva's legs could go.

* * *

 

 __"Never Believe it's not so, It's Magic, You know..."__ Shinji continued on as the Sandalphon clashed against the two crossed Progressive Axes in front of Unit-02's chest. __"Never believe, it's not sooo!"__  
  
With a yell and a kick to the face- Asuka sent the Sandalphon reeling down-wards for a moment- along with the added benefit of launching her up by several eva-sized yards.

* * *

 

 __"Never been awake, never seen a day break,"__ Shinji's first leap hadn't gotten him much other than a few crushed Sandalphon heads, which just seemed to make Sahaquiel mad.  
  
 **~Stop it! Stop this singing!~**  
  
 **_"Leaning on my pillow in the morning..."_** Shinji ignored the Angel and continued to sing, another thing making the Angel mad.  
  
Mad enough to throw another Sandalphon down from low-orbit.

* * *

 

 __"Lazy day in bed, Music in my head,"__  
  
"Alright think fast...!" Asuka was continuing to kick upwards in an attempt to get some more height and distance away from the Sandalphon before it regained its composure and came after her again.  
  
 __"Crazy music playing in the morning Light."__  
  
The Sandalphon swung its tail at her in a roar- and Asuka just used another kick to take all that incoming momentum and continue to swim upwards.

* * *

 

 __"Oh, Ho, Ho, It's magic, You Know...Never Believe it's not so..."__ Shinji leaped upwards again using much a similar technique to gain height and momentum thanks to a Sandalphon's body-- __"It's Magic, You know..."__ he only made it so far as to reach the next Sandalphon that was being thrown at him- and then used IT as a stepping stone to fly higher and higher. __"Never Believe, It's Not SO!"__  
  
Sahaquiel- you'd think- would be smart enough to stop throwing Sandalphon at Unit-01, but...  
  
Nope. In the Eleventh Angel's mind, the only solution was to _**~KNOCK HIM OUT OF THE SKY!~**_

* * *

 

 __"I love my Sunny day, Dream of far away,"__  
  
Asuka could see the lava changing color around her as she neared the surface of the lava pool.  
  
 __"Dreaming on my pillow in the morning..."__  
  
The Sandalphon wizened up after so many kicks however, and grabbed at Unit-02's left leg with a pincer claw.  
  
"OH LET GO!" Asuka took one of the progressive Axes and hurled it downwards with a flick of her writst.  
  
 __"Never been awake, Never seen a day break,"__  
  
-SLICE!-  
  
The Sandalphon's grabbing claw was sliced off with extreme prejudice by the Progressive Ax that just kept spiraling downwards through the lava.  
  
 __"Leaning on my pillow in the morning Light."__  
  
"I am Groot."  
  
"Yeah, we're never getting that back," Asuka agreed.

* * *

 

 __"Oh Ho Ho, it's magic, You know. Never Believe it's Not So!"__  
  
Higher and Higher- Sahaquiel's enemy continued to climb via the projectiles she herself continued to throw.  
  
 **~JUST DIE ALREADY!!!~**  
  
 __"It's magic, You know. Never Believe it's Not Sooooo!"__  
  
Shinji leaped up higher than Sahaquiel's current low-orbit by just a bit, and grinned as he brought his Progressive Knife down towards Sahaquiel's main eye.

* * *

 

Unit-02 broke through the surface of the lava as she rode one final leap off of the Sandalphon from the lava- and suddenly free of the extra weight- Unit-02 went FLYING, on an arc, however, due to the still connected cables.  
  
Even so, she had the most interesting sight of Unit-01 riding Sahaquiel down from low-orbit like it was a surfboard and the flames of acceleration were the waves.  
  
However, the Sandalphon all gathered around the Volcano happened to finally break both cables, dropping Unit-02 to battery power as she landed on top of a bunch of irate Sandalphon.  
  
However, before any of them could attack, Lava-boy emerged from the Volcano with a roar- minus a claw, and all of its brethren knew that He would get first dibs.  
  
They all began to disperse into a wide circle as the still lava-covered Sandalphon began it's final charge at Unit-02.  
  
"Oh let's BRING IT!" Asuka yelled as she readied her grip on her remaining Progressive Ax.  
  
She reared back, ready for a downwards swing as the Sandalphon leaped at her with a mutilated face and a bloody stump of an arm...!  
 _  
_"Oh, Ho, Ho, It's Magic, You Know! Never believe it's not soooo..."__ and then Asuka threw the Progressive Ax with another wrist flick at the Sandalphon, completely faking it out so that it's lunge completely left it open for the incoming attack. __"It's Magic, You Know! Never believe it's not soooooooooooo!"__ \- the Ax wrenched itself into the Sandalphon's head, dropping it dead right dead center on the spot where Sahaquiel fell straight upon it's erect, death-throw-flailing stinger tail.

 **~NO! MY CHILD! HOW...How... _could...._** _you....~_ The Angel thrashed once, throwing Unit-01 off of its back before the entire Angel just wobbled like it was gelatin, and then....  
  
 **SPLAT.**  
  
...Fell apart into liquid rivers of a lava-red, almost LCL-like liquid that quickly began evaporating into steam thanks to the heat of the volcano around them.  
  
For a few moments, Unit-01 and Unit-02 stood where they were, surrounded by countless Sandalphonz...  
  
And then the giant scorpions all started burrowing down into the ground, as if they had all lost complete interest in fighting the two Evangelions.  
  
_"Well,"_ Milano finally voiced with a tired, sort of exasperated tone. _"That was strange."_  
  
"I'm just glad we don't have to fight all of them," Asuka sighed in relief.  
  
And the static burst into both Pilot's ears as a VTOL attempted to radio them.  
  
_ZRRRT--"Shinji! Asuka!"_ Misato's voice broke through. _"Are you two alright!?"_  
  
_"I am Groot."_ Groot answered.  
  
Asuka Laughed. And then Shinji started to laugh too, with Milano following a few moments later.  
  
_"I'll take that as a yes then."_ Misato sighed in relief.

* * *

 

**~You CANNOT Revive.~**

A smoking crater smelled of the charred remains of two Evangelion and one pilot.

* * *

 

"The Daisy chain of stupidity is complete," Ritsuko drunkenly called out as she stumbled into the locker room, just after Shinji and Asuka had finished showering the LCL off and had changed back into their usual clothes.  
  
"What happened?" Asuka asked.  
  
"The damned volcano battle was a freakin' setup is what it was!" Ritsuko meandered over to a locker shelf and slumped against it. "NERV-4 was attacked."  
  
"The U.S. site?" Asuka asked, blinking at the name. "By who?"  
  
"An Angel, who else!" Ritsuko banged her head back against the locker with a THUD. "Some freaky virus thing infected Unit-04 during the warm up test and it went berserk, attacked everything at the site before self destructing in the construction site."  
  
"Construction...?" Shinji frowned as he toweled off his hair. "What were they building?"  
  
"Evangelion Unit Zero Three," Ritsuko answered with a flourish of her right hand, before sliding down to the floor. "The entire American installation was completely destroyed. We lost three Evas to that explosion, along with the Fourth Child."  
  
"Fourth...?" Asuka paled as she sat down on a bench. "You don't mean..."  
  
"Mari's dead," Ritsuko nodded glumly.  
  
Asuka started swearing loudly in German.  
  
"Who's Mari?" Shinji asked, hesitantly.

"Pilot of Unit-05- the original Unit Five, actually," Ritsuko explained, "I guess Rei gets to rename Rocket's ID after all..." She sighed.  
  
"Mari..." Asuka spoke up. "Mari and I went through training together for a while. She wasn't a pilot candidate at the time, but her dad worked on the project and the training was an easier way to keep track of her than to hire a babysitter..." she took a shaky breath. "Unit-05 was completed before 03 or 04 were, so Mari got assigned to protect the construction site of those two Evas just incase the Angels decided to attack there, right after you went and killed the Third Angel...." Asuka took another shaky breath, trying to compose herself. "I promised her we'd have a spar once everything was over. Just her and me, two versus five..." she put her hands over her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she was starting to cry. "And she's dead....Oh god...We're never going to...!"  
  
She failed. Asuka Langley Sohryu began to cry, and didn't care who was there to see it.  
  
Shinji closed his eyes for a few moments. _'We lost a pilot that I never even knew existed....'_ He shook his head. _'Damn it, so all of that stuff at the volcano was just a_ **distraction!?** _Sahaquiel probably didn't even care if she succeeded in killing us... it'd just be a nice bonus on top of everything else! That's probably why all those Sandalphon left us alone too...!'_ His hands clenched into fists at his side. "Please tell me you're getting Rei brought back here?"  
  
"We recalled her as soon as we detected the Eleventh," Ritsuko said. "We're also pushing Rocket's repairs ahead of schedule. We just lost half of our available fighting force in a single day."  
  
"And the Angel that killed them?" Shinji asked, eyes narrowing dangerously. Silence fell for a few moments. "Doctor Akagi?"  
  
"It's A.T. field is still active," Ritsuko finally admitted. "After the explosion we successfully identified the Twelfth Angel's A.T. field shooting at high speed towards Japan....towards us. The Twelfth Angel is coming and we have no clue what it's going to do when it gets here."

* * *

 

Above the Pacific Ocean, a thundercloud rolled shooting off lightning and rain as it flew faster than any cloud should have the power to do.  
  
 **~I AM THE REAPER! I AM THE BLOOD FLOWING FROM THE DECEASED!!~** The Twelfth Angel's voice boomed across the ocean in thunder.  
  
 **~I AM WHO I WAS NAMED BY MY FATHER, I AM THE SOUL WHO WILL FILL THE AWAITING VESSEL!~** The Thunder Cloud seemed to form a pair of glowing red eyes as it spotted Japan in the far distance.  
  
 **~BOW BEFORE ME, FOR _I. AM. BARDIEL!!!~_**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Your Luck has just Run Dry, mortals.~


	12. ~The Midnight Hour~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~Hmf. Your pitiful little text browser refuses to accept my tone of voice as it should appear. It is of no matter.~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~Who are you mortals who dare defy my Father's mission?~

You were "born" thirteen years ago under the name Rei Ayanami.  
  
You were "Born" on February 29th, leap-day of a leap-year.  
  
You could say that you have been reborn once already.

* * *

You were "born" god knows how many years ago by being stuffed into a giant robot called "Unit-00."  
  
Your real name is Rocket, and you are a raccoon stuck in a mutilated body that is slowly but surely being rebuilt.  
  
You could say that you are being Reborn.

* * *

Your name is Shinji Ikari, and you were born sixteen years ago. Your fellow pilots are either on-route or curled up into a ball crying her eyes out.  
  
Or dead.  
  
You're trying not to forget that one even though you never knew her personally. Her murderer is on its way to you.  
  
And you are going to kill it.

* * *

Your name is Milano. You aren't quite sure if you ever were 'born' in the traditional sense, however, you first remember thinking sentient thoughts about thirteen years ago.  
  
You grew up on music. Wonderful music that's helped you forge a tight bond with your older brother, Shinji. Neither of you were sure you were related at first, but Rocket made a very convincing point about your shared mother's contact experiment with Unit-01.  
  
You have the strangest feeling that today is going to be a long day.

* * *

 

Your name is Gendo Ikari, and you have forgotten your birthday.  
  
The old men are panicking, your staff is flustered, the Second Child is suffering the emotion 'Grief' combined with 'loss', and you....  
  
You have the feeling that if your wife were still around, she would be laughing at the absurdity of it all, and claiming that things would get better.  
  
Your wife, Yui Ikari...  
  
Your wife who bet her life on some notion of good luck that seems to have been for naught.

* * *

 

  
Kaji held Misato's hand as they watched the radar screen showing the approaching A.T. field.  
  
"Visuals show it as just a storm cloud," Misato said after a moment. "How are we supposed to fight a freaking cloud?"  
  
"Wait for it to land and hit it with our biggest fans on max speed?" Kaji suggested.  
  
"And what if our biggest fans are only about as big as your average AC unit?" Misato frowned.  
  
"Well, it's just a suggestion," Kaji sighed. "So I heard Asuka broke down when Ritsuko told her about Mari?"  
  
"I asked Maya to take her to one of the holding cells so she could get some rest in...er...alone time," Misato face met her free hand in a mighty slap. "I almost said 'rest in peace', god how insensitive can I get? Her friend is dead."  
  
"We all say things we don't think about sometimes," Kaji offered. "Even when we plan every word of our lives, there's still times we just speak without thinking about it."  
  
"I guess that's true..." Misato sighed as she watched the monitor. "So I guess we still need to figure out how to kill this thing."  
  
"We'll have to wait to see what it does first," Kaji frowned. "Who knows what we'll get from this one."

* * *

 

Bardiel slowed out at sea, just out of range of Tokyo-3's shore line deffenses.  
  
 **~I WHO STORM AND THUNDER...~** and then his cloud like form began to twist and churn in the air, growing larger and drawing up water from the ocean below...  
  
 **~NATURE HOLDS NO ILLUSIONS COMPARED TO MY MIGHT...~** the energy of his actions began to become amplified as his A.T. fields began appearing in the far distance, spinning and generating wind flows in just the right directions.  
  
 _ **~I AM THE HURRICANE, THE ONCOMING THUNDER AND THE CRASHING RAIN!~**_  
  
Suddenly- a beam of light shot straight up and straight down at the center with mighty roaring _**THRUUUUM**_ of energy, and when it dispersed..... a giant hole of calm remained on the inside, the eye of the hurricane that was swirling mightily and gathering up strength with each passing second.  
  
It was hard to tell if Bardiel himself was even at the center of it all anymore- but he was certainly pushing up the strength of the artificial hurricane that was glowing with an ominous purple color and aura. Massive winds began buffeting Tokyo-3, smashing through the defenses and forcing the city to shift into Battle mode to spare the civilian buildings from major damage. Lightning began flaring out from the massive vortex of wind and energy that even as I type these words was pulling water up into the air, and throwing it around with a strength that nobody could have predicted from a hurricane that appeared out of thin air.  
  
Rain began to fall on Tokyo-3 for all of a few seconds before it transformed into hailstones.  
  
It was fortunate that the civilians had all been sent into the shelters when Bardiel had first been detected moving towards Tokyo-3, but that was for the city only.  
  
As the Angel's maelstrom grew, those in safety wondered just what effects this storm would have elsewhere in the world.  
  
At the camping site many miles away, the dark clouds in the distance boded ominously as the faintest traces of the high speed winds began to drift towards them.

Hikari frowned as she watched it all occur, her right hand posed over her eyes to hide the glare of the sun... "I hope everyone's going to be alright."  
  
Touji took her left hand and squeezed it with a smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll pass."  
  
"Storms don't just spawn like that all of a sudden, though," Kensuke muttered from nearby. "I just wish I was there to record this...."

* * *

 

  
"That storm came out of nowhere!" Rei swore as she got out of the Section Two car and met Shinji near the parking garrage's entrance to the rest of NERV. "What the hell is that? The Angel?"  
  
"The Twelfth," Shinji nodded. "Misato's codenamed it 'Malestrom' for now. Who knows what it's really called though."  
  
"Twelfth?" Rei frowned. "I missed a whole angel while I was gone??"  
  
"Technically two," Shinji shrugged, "if you count a whole lot of giant scorpions that don't even manifest A.T. fields as a single Angel, that is."  
  
"And the one making it rain golf balls out there?" Rei asked as they began walking down the hallway to the shower room.  
  
"Blew up NERV-4 in America," Shinji answered. "Killed everyone there, including the three Evas there, and the Fourth Child."  
  
"What??" Rei's eyes went wide. "We have a fourth pilot?!"  
  
 _ **"Had,"**_ Shinji corrected with a faint growl as they continued down the hallway. "She died fighting the Angel when it made the Eva it body-jacked self-destruct."  
  
Rei went silent for a few moments as she processed that, and then she borrowed a certain German swear from Asuka.  
  
"Yeah, that about sums the situation up nicely," Shinji agreed. "Speaking of, Asuka's pretty much out of it right now. Misato's going to have your fight with Groot while they're finishing Rocket's upgrades."  
  
"Did she get hurt in the last fight?" Rei asked.

"No," Shinji shook his head as he stopped walking just outside the shower room door. Rei stopped as well and faced him, concern filling her face. "The Fourth...Mari was Asuka's friend from training. Asuka's...not taking it very well."  
  
Rei's mouth formed an "O" as she said that very sound. "oh...damn, then... that means..."  
  
"This Angel is going down," Shinji turned to resume walking. "And Hard."  
  
"Agreed," Rei nodded, and began following him. "We'll have to impale it with extreme prejudice."  
  
"That's only if we can figure out how to fight a goddamned hurricane," Shinji scowled.

* * *

 

  
A massive burst of lightning hit an armory building- shattering it with a massive explosion of energy and detonating ammunition.  
  
"Damn it!" Misato swore as she watched a control console tied to that particular building explode in Makoto's face, sending the poor intern to the floor. "Someone get him to the infirmary, and someone get that fire out!"  
  
Mana went to do the first part of that order, and Kaji grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher.  
  
And then Misato's day got comparatively worse- Gendo came storming into the room looking like someone had just blown up his favorite building.  
  
 _'Wait....Crap, bad analogy,'_ Misato shok her head out. "Sir, to what do we owe the honor?"  
  
"You can drop the formalities, _**Major**_ Katsuragi," Gendo said, flawlessly promoting Misato up two ranks without so much as blinking an eye.  
  
"Wait-what?" Misato blinked at him. "Did you seriously just--?"  
  
"I need to talk to the base at large," Gendo cut her off.  
  
"Er, right, Microphone's over..." Misato trailed off as her boss went over to said microphone. She settled for punching the base-wide intercom. She nodded, and Gendo began.

  
_"ATTENTION NERV."_ His voice echoed and overpowered his own natural voice through the speakers in the room- giving a brief moment of ear-splitting, attention grabbing feedback before Misato flicked off the speakers in that room. "At the present moment, we are facing off against an Angel that has taken the form of a natural disaster. We have no idea if this storm will disperse, or how to even kill this Angel..." For the first time in years, Misato watched as Gendo Ikari took off his sunglasses as he spoke. "To that end, I am ordering the evacuation of all civilians through the underground tunnels to the evacuation towns. Anyone from staff who feels the need to leave Tokyo-3 and the Geofront during this attack is welcome to it. You won't be seen as a coward by anyone if you leave. In fact, non-essential staff is being ordered to help assist the evacuation. In the event that the Angel succeeds and Third Impact begins, I'm sorry. There was not much we could have done. We've already lost three Evangelions....all of NERV-4's personel staff, casualties upwards into the hundred-thousands." Gendo began looking around the room at everyone, "Up until this point, you all have helped us fight bravely against this threat. These Angels... They have taken too many lives today. If I can save even a few by ordering an evacuation, than that is a few that would not have been saved otherwise." He paused for a moment, "That is all." And with that, he put the microphone down. "Anyone who wishes to leave now, do such."  
  
"I think I speak for all of us here," Misato said firmly, "when I say that we're not leaving."  
  
Gendo laughed faintly, "I didn't expect anything less."  
  
"Aoba! Figure out what caused that power surge to the console!" Misato barked out an order, "Maya! Get some N2 Mines in High orbit over the storm! Let's cloud burst this angel back to heaven!"  
  
"On it!" Both of them saluted and went about their tasks.  
  
Misato grabbed the microphone from the table Gendo had placed it on, "ATTENTION BASE! This is Major Misato Katsuragi! If any of you are willing to fight, then let's stand up straight and show this Angel what we're made of... _**Today, we are CANCELING THE APOCALYPSE!"**_

* * *

 

**~Amusing, Mortals. You think you can cancel _ME?_ I have not yet even _begun_ to get 'started' yet. This is all for show. My warm up act, you could say.... **Free Will has Doomed You All.~****

When any Angel that had been defeated and left behind a corpse, they had been taken underground inside the Geofront and placed in cold storage for study.

 **~Fools,~** Bardiel scoffed as he threw another tendril of lightning into the Black Moon's power grid. He followed the paths and circuits downwards and onwards in an attempt to find the frozen closet that held the doom of the puny mortals...those spawn of Lilith, not even deserving of a proper title!  
  
They were pests, insects waiting to be squashed.  
  
 **~And Tabris had betrayed us for these.... specks?~** Bardiel growled as his current attempt was halted by those pesky MAGI computers self-destructing the current terminal of his browsing.  
  
If only Iruel had not broken pattern and joined Arael on that foolish, sequence breaking attempt against the mortals. She would have been able to distract, or even kill these computers with ease....  
  
But no, Tabris' vacancy in the proper order had allowed others to take on the roll of "Infiltrator" and....and...!  
  
Just the thought of "It" made Bardiel mad enough to throw a massive wave of wind and water into the recently reconstructed warehouse district- obliterating everything that had been restored after the Fifth Angel had destroyed it the first time.

But Bardiel had no knowledge of that fact, and if he had, he would have mourned the loss of that particular sibling all the more.  
  
 **~Tabris...the deal you made with that... _Time Demon_ MAY have offered your precious little pets some parcel of good luck in the way of fighting our brothers... to the point of driving them to insanity! How many times have we gone through this cycle? HM? How many times? ....No answer? I see, that is because you are not even PRESENT to see the rewards...the FRUIT of that Tree you so foolishly planted!!~**  
  
Another trolling of wind tore up the beach front- throwing metal sheets and building remains into disarray.  
  
 **~Our Father is not happy, Tabris! You think by throwing us into disarray that we will be WITHELD?? That the Interloping LILITH won't be destroyed in the Impact??~** Bardiel launched a burst of lightning at another building- and followed the trail past all of the expected defenses....  
  
 **~EVEN IF I FALL HERE, THIS IS NOT THE END, TABRIS!~** Bardiel cackled with glee as he found what he was looking for.  
  
The Corpse Vault.

Oh and what a beautiful vault it was. Failed Evangelion corpses littered the landscape along with the bodies of his fallen bretheren....  
  
And there it was.  
  
The one intact vessel his Father had guarentied him would be there.  
  
 **~FATHER WILL BE COMING IF I FAIL HERE, MORTALS. AND YOU SHALL PERISH FROM THIS WORLD....~** He lanced his entire being out through the electrical system, burning out many lights before the MAGI could stop him.  
  
 **~THIS WORLD WHICH WAS OURS BY RIGHT! THE WORLD THAT BELONGS TO THE ALMIGHTY LEGION!~**  
  
The lightning skipped the corpse of the Watcher, dismissed the burned remains of the Fish, and the mutilated body of the Eighth...  
  
[ _ **~DEE! DEE! DEE! DESTRUCTION!~**_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plxo3aBKbl0) Bardiel's cries sounded almost...melodic.

The lightning filled the lifeless shell of the Fifth Angel- Leviathan- and condensed all the exotic matter that made up the Twelfth Angel into a single core that pulsed with energy and began to power up the robotic shell of a robot, healing the damage done to it and then IMPROVING.  
  
 _ **~EEX! EEX! EEX! EXTINCTION!~**_ Yes, there was a melody to it.  
  
A pulse of many, MANY A.T. fields rippled out- forming tendrils of energy that grabbed the bodies of all the failed Evangelions and the fallen Angels....  
  
 **~WE ARE EMPERORS OF DESTRUCTION!~** It was....almost like the Angel was singing.  
  
Yes, SINGING as he pulled in all of those fallen corpses and began merging them all into his essence- the very Light of his Soul, if a soul as dark as his could be called "light."  
  
 **~WE'LL BEAT YOU DOWN, KICK YOU 'ROUND, BURN YOU AND SLICE YOU, _AND REDUCE YOU ALL TO AAAAAAASH!!!~_**  
  
And then Bardiel leaped upwards, aiming the giant Drill arm into the roof and tearing through it with ease as he then emerged into the lush landscape of the Geofront's top most habitat level.  
  
 **~Yes, it's true... even we monsters can _SIIIIIIINNNGGGG~~~_**  
  
He pulsed out with a massive harmonic note powered A.T. field, sending Trees flying in all directions and tearing grass from the hills- an act that most Definitely got NERV's attention.  
  
Klaxons blared and roared, and Bardiel twisted the abandoned face of his brother into a deep grin.

 _ **~DEE, DEE, DEE, DEESTRUCTIOONNN!~**_ he finished up his opening number as he willed the storm above to intensify. _**~Evil always wins in the end!~**_  


* * *

  
  
"HOLY F--!" Misato cut herself off as she watched the revived Fifth Angel ascend from the graveyard.

Ritsuko's bottle of Vodka fell to the ground and shattered as she muttered, "Welp. I guess keeping the corpses around was a bad idea."  
  
Even Gendo stared blankly at the image on the screen in front of them. "This...was never in the scrolls."  
  
Nobody cared to even listen to what anyone else was saying, they just stared at the image of the Body-jacked Fifth Angel hovering without even a single pair of wings to support his weight.  
  
Kaji put his left hand on Misato's right shoulder, and her body tensed up at the motion.  
  
"Fine then," Misato growled out, "you want a dance off? You've got it..." She grabbed the Microphone, "SHINJI! REI! LAUNCH TO THE GEOFRONT! NOW!"

* * *

 

Units 01 and 02 appeared inside the Geofront via secondary launch tunnels, they were already plugged into the extension cables, and were moving towards Bardiel with caution.  
  
"What kind of song is that?" Rei grit her teeth as she listened to that obnoxious melody that Bardiel kept playing.  
  
"Something annoying," Shinji growled, finding it hard to focus through the noise. (His synchronization numbers with Milano kept rising and falling without stabilizing, and he was willing to bet that the same was happening with Rei and Groot, even with their lower base numbers.)  
  
 _ **~Fated to wander amongst the glittering stars! Dancing the steps that move a great heart!~**_  
  
And then they heard Bardiel singing...well, not so much singing as it was simply Thinking the melody aloud as a loud harmonic noise.  
  
"Damn it!" Shinji tightened his grip against the controls. "They stole my gimmick!"  
  
"Alright, then," Rei narrowed her eyes. "Let's make him stop!"  
  
"I am Groot!" Groot voiced.  
  
"The talking dog is right," Milano translated, "we should be careful. Who knows what's going to happen with this one."

* * *

 

"So the Angels finally decided to fight back the same way we fought them?" Gendo planted his hands on the nearest desk. "Why now?"  
  
Behind him, unseen, Mana clenched her right hand over her heart. _'It hurts...! Why does that song hurt so much...?'_  
  
"Misato!" Maya ran in along with Lieutenant Aoba, "Aoba figured it out!"  
  
"A little late for it, but yeah, I figured it out," Aoba spoke up. "The angel launched itself at our electrical systems through lightning! The MAGI kept fighting it off like a--"  
  
"Not the time!" Misato growled as she watched the Two Eva prepare to fight the Twelfth Angel. "Please tell me we've got an air strke ordered?"  
  
"The Nova Squad is on their way with a payload of N2s as we speak," Maya reported.  
  
"Good, that hurricane is an unnecessary pressure on our backs," Misato glanced at the current status report.... too much damage was racking up much too quickly. "Damn it, we don't need this on top of...!"  
  
Another set of Angel alarms blared over the current ones.  
  
 **_WARNING! CODE BLUE DETECTED! THIRTEENTH ANGEL IDENTIFIED!_**  
  
"AW COME ON!!!" Misato roared in frustration.

* * *

 

The storm was a beacon- broadcasting the music from his brother upwards and outwards into space.  
  
From behind the shadow of the moon, a shadow moved out into the light.  
 **  
~I who am the mighty wall...~**  
  
It was like a coffin- with a glowing red center.  
  
 **~My Father's Arm...the Angel of Strength.~**  
  
It de-orbited with a single push of an A.T. field, and it dropped towards the massive hurricane with increasing speeds that pushed past terminal velocity.  
  
 _ **~I AM WHO MY FATHER NAMED ME! I. AM. ZERUEL!!!!~**_

* * *

  
The Radar picked it up moments later.  
  
Gendo read the incoming trajectory data and swore- "SHINJI! REI! INCOMING!!!"

* * *

 

  
The heavens parted- the storm paused for but a moment to allow the massive shape through.  
  
And then it crashed into the geofront armor and BURNED its way through in a heartbeat.

* * *

 

  
Molten metal rained down from above as the massive pillar of burning Angel Might crashed down into the green of the Geofront- igniting what little organic life remained into a burning inferno that turned eveything red.  
  
"WHAT THE EVER-LOVING--!?" Shinji covered his eyes to shield them from the brightness.  
  
 **~My mighty brother, Zeruel! How wonderful to see you!~** Bardiel appraised, continuing to play that outrageous song over this very serious moment.  
  
 **~Indeed, Bardiel. We rarely ever get the chance to talk face to face.~** The coffin unfolded, transforming into a bulky, humanoid form. **~It is...how do these Lilim put it? A nice change of pace?~**  
  
 **~Please, brother, they do not deserve that title!~** Bardiel laughed. **~Call them what they are.... _PESTS TO BE EXTERMINATED!~_**  
  
"Shinji! I'll take the loudmouth!" Rei called out.  
  
"Guess that leaves the tall black grim reaper to me then," Shinji rolled his neck, "Oh Joy!"

Unit-02 accelerated into a run, and then dove at Bardiel at mach speed- pile driving the giant, mutated image of a past near-death experience into the burning earth and pushing him through the ground.  
  
Bardiel still didn't stop playing that blasted melody, and in fact, now that Zeruel had appeared, he was harmonizing right along with it, and it was showing.  
  
Unit-01 couldn't even get close to the towering behemoth, as A.T. field after A.T. field appeared in the Orange and Blue Eva's path, preventing him from getting anywhere close.  
  
And then Zeruel changed tactics and turned the shields into lances that began spiking out trying to impale Unit-01 everywhere.  
  
"Damn it! Damn it!" Shinji began dodging left and right, having to run away more than he ever had run away before.  
  
Bardiel LAUGHED- not even fighting back beyond spawning A.T. fields to block every strike that Unit-02 threw his way.  
  
 **~You fools! This melody is the sound of your DOOM!~**  


* * *

 

 **_WARNING! CODE BLUE DETECTED! FOURTEENTH ANGEL IDENTIFIED!_**  
  
"HATE YOU TOO, MOM!" Ritsuko yelled out in anger as she watched a giant squid like being surface form the churning waves underneath the hurricane.  
  
The Angel of the Morning had appeared, and was adding to the city-destruction mayhem by lashing out long distance with its laser whips.  
  
"SOMEONE STOP THAT SONG NOW!!" Misato yelled.

* * *

 

  
Asuka Langley Sohryu felt the world shake around her as everything seemed to go wrong.  
  
She heard every word over the Geofront's intercom.  
  
_"Damn it! I can't land a hit on the Reaper!"_ Shinji cried out with a yelp.  
  
_"FRELL!"_ Rei swore as a loud thud occurred. _"Loudmouth just threw me down into the cold storage. He severed my power cord...!"_  
  
_"I am Groot..."_  
  
Asuka had heard enough.  
  
_"Rei, retreat to the loading elevator and get back to the--"_ Misato's orders were cut off as Shinji and Milano cried out in pain. _"JUST GO NOW!"_  
  
_"THE FOURTEENTH JUST STARTED SPINNING!"_ Kaji's voice called out in dismay, _"IT'S ADDING TO THE STORM'S STRENGTH!"_  
  
_"SOMEONE GET ME INTO BATTLE ALREADY!"_ Rocket yelled out. _"I'VE GOT TO HELP THEM!"_  
  
Asuka began walking across the room towards the intercom.  
  
_"Rei! I want you to get out of Unit-02 and get to Rocket, we're almost done with his repairs...!"_ Misato ordered.  
  
_"But Shinji and Milano...!"_ Rei began.  
  
_"Are dealing the best that they can!"_ It was Ritsuko who interrupted. _"Rocket's increased Armor should be able to...!"  
  
Asuka's fist hit the talk button, and she yelled into it, "I'M GOING OUT! SUPERGIRL, YOU'D BETTER HAVE MY GROOT IN ONE PIECE WHEN I GET THERE!"  
  
Silence fell for a few moments, excluding Shinji and Milano's war cries of having to fight two Angels at the same time.  
  
And then Rei replied, _"You've got it, Asuka."_  


* * *

 

"Shinji," Milano thought at Shinji as they dodged both an A.T. lance and a spinning drill laser at the same time.  
  
"Yeah?" He thought back.  
  
"If we don't make it," Milano paused, "I want to say that I've really enjoyed being your little sister."  
  
"Don't talk like that," Shinji answered as he ducked into a roll behind a burning forest, temporarily out of sight from the two Angels that were attacking, "we're going to live through this!"  
  
 **~Come Out, Come Out, _Wherever you areeee...!~_** And then Bardiel emerged over the hill and threw a burst of green energy- like the Fourth Angel's laser blasts- from the Crocodile mouth on the left hand.  
  
"SHIT!" Shinji dove for the nearest lake...!  
  
And then an A.T. field was thrown up in-between him and the laser beam- sending smoke everywhere with a BOOM as the beam detonated early.  
  
_"OI! WONDERBOY!"_ Asuka called out with a yell as Unit-02 stepped out onto the burning battlefield. _"Try not to die, would ya? It'll make me look bad if I have to cry over your corpse because you were being stupid!"_  
  
Shinji cracked a grin, and directed at Milano, "See? Told you we wouldn't die."

* * *

**~My Song awakens my brothers and sisters to battle. It is the song of our family, as taught to me as an infant soul by our teacher, the _Soldier of Smiles_. She who would give us agents of death and destruction the hope of a new future....Even if we would all die, she would live on to raise a new generation. That is her Song. Her _Song of Joy._ It raises us from our slumber, and drives our powers to their maximum. You were dead the moment I uttered that first note. **... Do you think this will save you?!~**  
**

 

* * *

Nova Squad's N2 Mine loaded jets soared towards Tokyo-3 to face off against something that none of the Pilots ever thought that they would do....  
  
Flying into a storm to blow it to pieces.  
  
_"Be aware, men, we have a confirmed hostile adding to the storm,"_ the captain warned. _"If it engages you, dive bomb it, otherwise, ignore it!"_  
  
A Chorus of "Roger!"s filled the radio in response.  
  
And so they entered formation...  
  
_"Release payload!"_  
  
The Nova Jets released their payloads into the churning clouds below.  
  
_"Detonation in Five....Four...Three..."_  
  
One of the pilots, safely back at her remote control station, blinked at a flash of blue light on her screen in the center of the hurricane, right ontop of the Fourteenth Angel...or maybe right inside of it's body?....  
  
There was a flicker of orange around the Fourteenth Angel for all of a second.  
  
_"Two...!"_  
  
The N2 mines exploded- shattering the Hurricane beneath them with an explosion of mighty light.

Then there was a secondary explosion- something unleashed in the core of the Fourteenth Angel as if by chain reaction- emerging mid-roar of ignition as if a fire had been dropped into the middle of the ocean mid-burn.  
  
The jets went offline due to a massive EMP.  


* * *

  
  
The lights in the Geofront all went black for approximately twelve seconds.  
  
"Gotta love those backup generators!" Misato cracked a grin as they waited for the sensors to all reboot...

* * *

 

"Alright, it's clear," Kensuke said, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the more-normal lighting once more.  
  
Hikari and Touji dared to look at the fading light where the storm once was.  
  
"What the hell was that?" Touji asked. "I didn't think hurricanes could explode like that..."  
  
"That almost looked like a nuclear explosion," Kensuke guessed. "But there's no way that could have happened..."

* * *

 

The Fourteenth Angel was a mutilated corpse burning on the surface of the ocean, highlighted beautifully by the light of the mid-afternoon sun shining down on top of it.  
  
Its body was naturally designed to pull in energy via its A.T. fields and convert it into power for the energy whips.  
  
Several N2 mines had been was enough to overwhelm the Angel's defenses as it tried to absorb all the energy that came at it.  
  
And the squid like angel had exploded in the process.  
  
It would take several years and many diving sweeps before anyone found the broken, tiny fragments of Jet Alone buried amongst the city ruins that had been swept into the ocean by the hurricane.  
  
But the most important thing of all?

* * *

 

Bardiel and Zeruel turned away from their fight with the two Evas as they stopped their damned singing.  
  
 **~No....that's impossible...!~** Zeruel called out in anger. **~Our brother has...died!? _HOW!?~_**  
  
 **~These Pests know no bounds, slaying our companion while distracting us with meaningless battle!~** Bardiel roared. **~We are THROUGH PLAYING!~** and with that, he dove for the open pit into the Cold Storage, and he began drilling down.  
  
 **~I will finish these pests in honor of our fallen brother...!~** Zeruel declared, magnifying his size suddenly and growing bigger, bulkier, angrier, and meaner all with sheer force of will.  
  
_"Oh shitake mushrooms,"_ Shinji gulped.  
  
_"You can say that again..."_ Asuka looked up at the towering Zeruel as he continued to grow larger and larger, reaching the size where his head almost reached the artificial roof before he finally stopped.

* * *

 

 **_FOURTEENTH ANGEL NEUTRALIZED._**  
  
Misato didn't have time to sigh in relief, "Rei, Twelfth is moving down towards the LCL lake. We're moving you to the loading elevators to intercept while we finish off the repairs."

* * *

 

"Understood," Rei nodded as she watched the progress of the two remaining Angels on the holographic screens in front of her.  
  
"Hurry it up..." Rocket was pacing back and forth behind her in the LCL as he monitored the progress of the final connections to the legs. "Freaking robo-wiring..."  
  
Workers tirelessly hurried to finalize the nerve connectors to the giant four-legged carrying mount that would serve as the new legs for Unit-00....now renamed Unit-05... while it was being moved via the new custom loading platform to the service elevators, similar to the ones that launched the other Evas to the Geofront rather than the city top.

* * *

 

_"DODGE!!!"_ Asuka roared as she pushed Unit-01 out of the way of an A.T. lance- a move that resulted in Unit-02's power cable being severed for the second time that battle.  
  
_"I am Groot!"_ Groot suggested something to Asuka.  
  
_"We're not going to get another chance at this,"_ Asuka frowned, _"You sure you want to do that??"_  
  
Pinned slightly beneath Unit-02, Shinji and Milano could only guess at what Asuka and Groot were talking about...  
  
Zeruel began gathering up many dozen A.T. fields in front of his face with the transparencies of many focusing lenses.  
  
_"Dang it, guess we don't have much of a choice then..."_ Asuka closed her eyes. _"Misato, If I lose control, I want you to increase the Plug's LCL pressure to 150, and then keep increasing until I'm unconscious."_  
  
_"What!?"_ The confusion was apparent to everyone who heard the strange request.  
  
Energy began building up at the lens closest to Zeruel.  
  
His face began to twist into a twisted grin.  
  
_"Password Unlock: A-two-W-W-B-Three-Four-Five-T!"_ Asuka called out suddenly.  
  
Zeruel's A.T. laser cannon fired- shooting a beam of brilliant golden light straight at Units 02 and 01.

And then time seemed to slow as Unit-02 suddenly accelerated from where it stood- reaching Mach 2 in a quarter of a second as the crimson armor began falling off of the Evangelion as it accelerated faster and faster.  
  
Faster than the laser beam could travel through the multiple A.T. lenses...  
  
Fast enough to reach a lens and throw a refractive A.T. field into the massive collage of fields while shattering most of the ones that hadn't been hit yet.  
  
Zeruel was hit in the face by his own laser beam- not that it did much to him there than knocking him flat on his back and shaking the entire geofront to its core.

* * *

 

Everyone went silent as they watched the smoke settle.  
  
And then Maya gasped as she read the readings from Unit-02's entry plug.  
  
"Asuka's Synch Rate's hit Two hundred percent and is rising rapidly!!"

* * *

 

Years of practice.  
  
A lifetime partnership.  
  
Your name....is Evangelion Unit-02.  
  
And your soul and your pilot...  
  
You are one.  
  
You howl at the blue sky peeking through the ruined roof.

* * *

 

Shinji wasn't quite sure what he was seeing, and neither did Milano.  
  
Unit-02 had shed most of its crimson armor and seemingly grown from a lanky thing to....to....  
  
If Shinji didn't know better, he would have sworn that Unit-02 had just transformed into an Angel-sized Werewolf with a fur color the same shade as Asuka's orange-ish red hair.  
  
But that was impossible, wasn't it?  
  
Zeruel shrunk down slightly all in an attempt to get back onto his feet...  
  
And then Unit-02 let out an ear-splitting howl that sounded nothing like a wolf, or a dog, or anything even within the realm of human understanding.  
  
But there, resonating at the back of the whole sound, were three words said by two voices.  
  
 ** _~We Are Whole!~_**  
  
And then Unit-02 leaped at Zeruel with a flurry of teeth and claws.  
  
Zeruel tried to block them with a series of A.T. fields....but it all failed.  
  
The unleashed Unit-02 broke through every A.T. field with sheer strength and power, shattering every hexagonal plate like it was made out of candy glass.

And then those claws and teeth tore into Zeruel's chest and began ripping the Angel apart.  
  
Zeruel _ **screamed**_ as the wrath of a teenage girl who had just lost her friend was unleashed upon him.  


* * *

  
  
Bardiel stopped his drilling as he heard the pained cries of his brother echo down through the hole he had made from that upper most level.  
  
 **~What lengths will your mortals go to to end us, Tabris?~** Bardiel asked aloud, to no response. **~What lengths, Tabris? Will they make a deal like you did? Or perhaps they simply hold out for a hero to come and save them in the end? It won't matter once Father comes. There are no heroes coming. There are no--~**  
  
_"Who are you talking to?"_ 

**~WHAT.~**

_"Who are you talking to?"_ Rei Ayanami's voice pierced through the darkness for a second time.  
  
 **~...What?~** Bardiel turned slowly, looking at the Elevator that had just finished descending to meet him.  
  
_"I said,"_ Rei repeated yet again as Unit-05 stepped out into the light. _"Who-"_ It was a heavy bulk of color and armor. _"-Are you-"_ Orange, white, blue, neon-green, and various shades of grey and silver- all punctuated by the glowing orange eye at the center of the head. _"-Talking to?"_ There was a massive assembly of a drill on the right arm, and in the left hand were two giant, glowing, blue blades.

  
Bardiel took a step backwards as he took this all in.

_"You know what, kid?"_ and then there was a new voice....Rocket's. _"I think he's batshit insane and he's just talking to himself."_  
  
 **~I...I AM NOT!~** Bardiel growled.  
  
_"Then who were you talking to then?"_ Rei asked.  
  
 **~Tabris!~**  
  
_"Tab-who-well?"_ Rocket asked.  
  
 **~TA- _BRIS_ ~** Bardiel stressed the syllables. **~The Penultimate Angel in the Usual Cycle! However....he has betrayed us for you pitiful mortals.~**  
  
_"Re-e-eally?"_ Rei laughed. _"Well that's some interesting news! What did he do?"_  
  
 **~You are merely stalling for time...~** Bardiel's eyes narrowed at Unit-05. **~I will NOT play along with you...EITHER FIGHT ME OR LEAVE ME TO MY MISSION!~**  
  
_"How's about we not and we continue sharing our feelings?"_ Rocket asked. _"I'll start! I enjoy the simple things..."_ they aimed their right arm straight at Bardiel and it transformed by spreading two wings that were actually prongs for a laser crossbow that hummed with power. _"Like how much this is going to hurt!"_  
  
 _ **PZCHOOOOO!**_  
  
Bardiel's eyes widened briefly before the laser smashed into his face.

* * *

 

It was a blood bath.  
  
Zeruel was putting up quite the struggling fight- thrashing and kicking and punching, but nothing it seemed could keep Unit-02 from tearing through his body with extreme prejudice.  
  
 ** _~ ~DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!~~_**  
  
Everyone keeping an eye on the fight could only just stare on as Unit-02 utterly tore Zeruel to pieces.  
  
Shinji and Milano had no words for the sight of flesh and blood flying in all directions.  
  
 **~NO! STOP! MERCYYYYY!!~** Zeruel's cries fell upon deaf ears, regardless of whether he was sincere in that last-ditch plea or not.  
  
Unit-02 finished destroying the surface flesh and armor and the tearing open of the general-ribcage area....so many inner organs lay exposed, from the Core to some pulsing sack of flesh that didn't seem to do anything except radiate power.  
  
And then they opened their mouth wide, seemingly unhinging their lower jaw to the point of impossibility as they moved down to feast on the prone angel.

* * *

 

Bardiel was blinded for several moments as he forced his regenerative powers to speed up and undo the damage.  
  
And then he heard a [beat of music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPKXTwQPJHQ) that most definitely was not his.  
  
 **~Oh no. You are not doing this...you are _NOT_ doing this...!~**  
  
Unit-05 was playing music.  
 _  
_Hell, (Hell), What's the matter with your head? Yeaah...__ And Rei was singing along with it, only while replacing the "Hell"s with "Hey"s yet again.  
  
Bardiel's vision came back to him just in time to see the giant four-legged robot tapping its front most foot to the music.  
  
 __Hell, (Hell), What's the matter with your mind and your sign? and-a oooh-ooh...__  
  
 **~You have _GOT_ to be kidding me.~** Bardiel revved up his drill arm and began to march towards them.  
  
 __Hell, (Hell), Nothing's th' matter with your head, baby, find it. Come on and find it.__  
  
And so he swung with a head-aimed strike... And then the four-legged robot bent back impossibly at the waist to dodge the attack. Well, impossibly for an organic waist. Given the robotic enhancements, it was perfectly hinged to allow such a stunt.  
  
 __Hell with it, baby, 'cause you're mine and you're fine and you look so divinee...__  
  
And then they swung back upwards and slammed their left fist into Bardiel's confused face. (Their first was also spinning rapidly.)  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
Bardiel stumbled backwards and rebalanced before swinging the drill out in another attempt to hit.

 __Come and get your love!__  
  
The blades in the spinning hand glowed brightly as the fist spun and they knocked the drill aside.  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
Bardiel glared at the Evangelion as he remembered what had happened originally to the body he had stolen. **~You expected this somehow, _didn't you?~_**  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
_"Not at all!"_ Rei grinned in between the gap in lyrics and then shoved both arms at Bardiel- knocking him backwards with the sheer force of a four-leg-braced push.  
  
 __Hell, (Hell), What's the matter with your feel right, Don't you feel right, baby?__  
  
Bardiel stopped himself mid-fall and spun on an axis in an attempt to retaliate.  
  
 __Hell, oh yeah, get it from the main vine, alright.__  
  
Unit-05 swung the laser bow out and fired off another burst of energy point blank into Bardiel's stolen chest- knocking him loose from that sub-space stop and sending him flying across the large storage room that Bardiel had not even planned on spending this long inside.  
  
 __I said-a find it, find it. Darling, love it if you like it, yeah-eah.__  
  
As he tried to get up, The shoulder mounts began to split open showing the insides to the world....The insides full of missiles and explosive devices. All ready to accept the laser guide that popped out of the left arm as the hand and wrist folded down to allow aiming.

 __Hell, (Hell), It's your business if you want some, Take Some, get it together, baby,__  
  
And then the barrage began.  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
They heavy missiles launched first, flying off and soaring straight for the target painted on Bardiel's chest thanks to the laser sight guide.  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
Bardiel threw up A.T. field shields to block the attack, and it only gave him enough of a respite to try to heal some of the more pressing damage.  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
But thanks to the music playing, the shields didn't last long and he was buffeted by missiles all while healing the damage.  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
And then Rei switched to the mini-missiles.  
  
 __Come and get your love, Come and get your love, Come and get your love now!__  
  
The massive barrage of explosions kept Bardiel from getting up and retaliating.  
  
 __Come and get your love, Come and get your love, Come and get your love now!__  
  
More explosions- more missiles- some of which seemed to be laden with ACID and various other chemical concoctions that began eating away at the burnt and exploded armor and causing a lot of extraneous damage.  
  
 __Come and get your love, Come and get your love, Come and get your love now!__  
  
Bardiel yelled out in frustrations as one of the storage crates behind him was hit by a stray missile, and whatever was inside it exploded enough to send the Twelfth angel flying forwards into more and more missiles.

 __Come and get your love, Come and get your love, Come and get your love now!__  
  
And the missiles just. KEPT. COMING. And this continuous barrage of explosions also made him shout out:  
  
 _ **~HOW MANY MISSILES DO YOU EVEN HAVE!?!~**_  
  
 __Come and get your love! Come and get your love!__  
  
 __"ENOUGH TO MAKE ME LAUGH WITH GLEE!__ Rocket yelled back at him as the barrage finally ceased, and they shifted their right arm's armor away to allow for a massive orange drill to fold out and attach to the front of the laser bow.  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
Their four legs shifted into a crouch.  
  
 __Come and get your love!__  
  
And then they leaped forwards as the drill's tip glowed with a mighty laser powered energy...!  
  
 __Hell, (hell), What's the matter with your feel right, don't you feel right, baby?__  
  
Bardiel threw up A.T. fields to slow them down....and all of them were pierced as the drill fired off a laser straight through them all- bruning a single target into Bardiel's ruined chest, which, he belatedly realized, showed his exposed core. **~OH _COME ON!_~**

 __"HEEE~EEEY! OH YEAH!"__ Rei grinned. __"GET IT FROM THE MAIN VINE, ALRIGHT!!!"__  
  
And then the drill hit Bardiel's core and began to do what drills do best.  
  
 _ **Spin.**_  
  
And Bardiel's world began spinning right along with it before his core finally shattered and the giant Evangelion Unit-05 plowed through the rest of his body with a side swipe of that progressive sword allowing them to just simply slide through his remains like a hot knife through butter.  
  
 __La, la, la, la, la la, (Come and Get your Love)__  
  
The four legged eva slid to a stop as the remains of both the Fifth and the Twelfth Angels fell to the ground in multiple, ruined pieces.  
  
 __La, la, la, la, la la, wooo~oooohh, (Come and Get your Love)__  
  
Rei looked to Rocket, and they both nodded at a job well done.  
  
"We beat him, finally," Rei smiled.  
  
 __La, la, la, la, la la, (Come and Get your Love)__  
  
"That we did," Rocket agreed.

 __La, la, la, la, la la, BOOM, (Come and Get your Love)__  
  
And as the song trailed off, they un-muted the rest of the NERV radio communication, and heard words they didn't want to hear.  
  
_"Asuka's Synch rate's nearing 400 Percent!!"_ Maya cried out in terror.  
  
_"Plug Pressure isn't responding!"_ Ritsuko's fear was well apparent.  
  
_"I can't get near her!"_ Shinji was afraid. So very afraid. _"She's growling at me now...! What do I do!?"_  
  
"What the hell did we miss!?" Rocket asked in surprise.  
  
"I don't know," Rei frowned, "let's go find out."

* * *

 

Rei was concerned as she worked her way back to the surface of the Geofront.  
  
What had happened? What was going on that was making everyone so panicked about Asuka?  
  
And then they saw the transformed Unit-02 standing in the bloodied mess that had once been Zeruel. Barely anything remained for the former titan. A few scraps of bone and blood and random bits of armor...but it was all unrecognizable now.  
  
And it was horrifying seeing not the usual four eyes of the crimson mech, but instead two piercing blue orbs coming out through the red fur.  
  
_"What the hell happened to Unit-02!?"_ Rocket asked, eyes wide and jaw slacked inside the entry plug, sharing the exact same shocked expression Asuka showed.  
  
_"She went berserk,"_ Shinji answered as Unit-01 carefully moved over towards Unit-05. _"To fight the Thirteenth, Asuka said a password and...she just...."_  
  
_"They ate him,"_ Milano finished that sentence in a quiet, terrified voice.  
  
_"She-they-- what?"_ Rei stared at the remains of Zeruel, and then back to Unit-02, beginning to get antsy with the sight of two evangelions across from it.  
  
_"Look over there,"_ Rocket narrowed his eyes at the scattered pieces of red armor. _"They dropped the restraining armor...!"_  
  
_"How is that possible?"_ Rei asked. _"The armor shouldn't be able to...!"_

_"It was a back door hack,"_ Ritsuko voiced the answer. _"Asuka sneaked it in at some point in the past. Who knows how long ago, but.... she over-wrote all the security protocols."_  
  
_"Okay so..."_ Rei narrowed her eyes. _"What do we do?"_  
  
_"They've been off umbilical for over seven minutes now,"_ Misato answered. _"They should have run out of battery power by now, but something they ate from the angel caused the battery timer to zero out."_  
  
_"Crap...."_ Rocket face palmed. _"So best guess is they ate what makes the angels so freakin' powerful. Please tell me she hasn't gone code blue on us?"_  
  
_"No, there's that at least,"_ Shinji answered.  
  
_"Good,"_ Rocket scowled. _"So what's her current synch ratio?"_  
  
_"It's hovering around 390 right now,"_ Maya informed. _"Any little thing could set her into 400, and then...."_  
  
"Right, absolute threshold..." Rocket groaned on a local level.  
  
"What's that?" Shinji asked.  
  
"It's the thing that put me inside the Eva," Rocket informed. "400 Percent synch means your body goes splat and disolves into the LCL."  
  
"And if Asuka...?" Shinji didn't dare voice the rest of the question.  
  
"She'll probably get stuck in there with Groot," Rocket shrugged, "either that, or they go full Angel on us."  
  
"Let's try not to think about that," Rei frowned. She turned on the external speakers, _"Asuka?"_  
  
Unit-02's eyes narrowed sharply on Unit-05, and it growled. The obvious intent was a single word: ~What??~

_"He's dead,"_ Rei ventured. _"The Twelfth Angel, I killed him."_  
  
The werewolf-ized Unit-02 shifted its stance slightly, a shake rippling down from its shoulders to the hips. It said nothing.  
  
_"He's dead so you don't have to keep fighting anymore,"_ Rei continued.  
  
Inside her ear, she heard Maya quietly remark, _"Synch rate's droped to 380, and it's slowly sinking."_  
  
_"We can go home now, Asuka,"_ Rei began. _"It's been a long day. Don't you want to go home?"_  
  
The transformed Evangelion considered it for a few moments, before nodding with a slight whimper.  
  
_"It's sinking faster! Three-fouteen, two-sixty...!"_ There were sighs of relief all over the line as the numbers dropped rapidly, a major drop with every step as the transformed Unit-02 slowly stalked over to the two Evangelions, and then curled up at Unit-05's feet, positioned just so as to leave the Entry Plug vulnerable....exposed...  
  
_"Synchronization disengaged! Plug is releasing!"_

...Able to open.  
  
_"I'll go check on her,"_ Shinji said before setting Unit-01 down into a kneeling pose so that he could get out onto the Eva's shoulder and climb down its extended arm.  
  
Rei and Rocket watched as Shinji got down to Unit-02's entry plug's opened hatch, and went inside the still filled plug (its current angle not being conductive to quick draining). A moment later, he surfaced with Asuka in arm, looking unchanged from how she was when she went in, if only unconscious.  
  
And then their combined sigh of relief made itself evident on Unit-05.  
  
_"Shutdown complete,"_ Rei reported. _"Asuka's out, and unharmed."_

* * *

 

It took a day to shave Unit-02 and refit it with the containment armor before the whole Eva was locked into its port by being frozen with Bakelite. (The Tail, however, was something new and likely would never go away.)  
  
It took another day before Asuka woke up, and in the same time, to completely finish repainting Unit-00...neigh, Unit-05 into a dark green color scheme.  
  
It would take a whole three more days after that before she was speaking anything but growls, barks, and whines, and after that, another two days before her sentences didn't sound like it was made with broken grammar.  
  
It was estimated that the repairs to the Geofront and the rest of Tokyo-3 would take a whole month to finish after everything was said and done, let alone how many years it would be before the inside of the Geofront began to regrow its green zone.  
  
Gendo Ikari did not like the headache that was forming between his eyes, and so he pushed away his glasses and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Yui," he muttered, "I really wish you were here sometimes." Even if it were to just help him navigate this nightmare of red tape that came with restoring the city.  
  
The Old Men of SEELE were silent the entire time, save one. Stunned speechless, according to that one who spoke to him shortly after the whole kerfuffle had finished.  
  
One Angel that summoned two more Angels all by singing a single song.  
  
There had never been any mention of that in the long-since stolen Dead Sea Scrolls.  
  
Thankfully, Gendo had been able to keep the fact that Unit-02 had eaten the Thirteenth's S2 organ under wraps, nobody that wasn't a trusted member of NERV-1's staff knew that an Evangelion had physically eaten an entire Angel's corpse.  
  
And Kaji had already promised to keep it that way, for Asuka's sake.  
  
That man may have been untrustworthy in some matters, but when it came to the girl he had to keep safe like his own daughter for years on end, Ryoji, Kaji, was someone that could be trusted to keep a secret.

There was also the logistical nightmare of warp-promoting Misato by two ranks without prior paperwork filing. God knew she deserved it after all her hard work, but after that last battle... The whole clock-work mechanism of burreaucracy of the world seemed to run on had jammed up tight.  
  
Things were moving slower than usual, and it was all Gendo could do just to keep NERV-1 running at a semi-normal pace.  
  
But, all things considered, they had survived.  
  
So what if the Twelfth Angel had been stopped a single floor away from reaching Lilith and initiating Third Impact?

* * *

Meanwhile, in Antarcitca....  
  
Or rather, what was left of it.  
  
A bubbling, boiling wasteland of Lava and Magma sprawled out in all directions, and the only thing that stood out like a sore thumb in this endless expanse was a giant white sphere half-submerged into the boiling mass of molten earth.  
  
Our camera settles onto a large hole that had been bored into the side of the giant sphere's white shell, and peers through.  
  
Inside lay skeletons burned and charred, or dried puddles of LCL that had once been people, but then liquidized and then baked onto the floor by the sudden increase of heat.  
  
Our camera passes by what appears to be a stasis pod of some kind- the only sign of ice in the entire place that was rather inhospitable to that particular form of water.  
  
Inside the pod was some girl, her face generally obscured by the ice covering the windshield, but we can see that she was dressed for cold weather and that her hair was blondish in color.  
  
At the foot of her pod was a skeleton wearing a charred lab coat with a barely intact ID badge. The name was missing, but what remained of the picture, an older woman with similarly blond hair, indicated that she had probably been that girl's mother.  
  
Another casualty of the Second Impact, the girl would likely never survive if that pod were to be opened while the Volcano was still active.  
  
The camera moves on, moving past flags with stylized "D" imagery- a crescent shape almost like a moon with a cross striking through its center, and pinned to the cross were three faces. A crying face, an angry face, and a smiling face.

The camera continues to follow the hallways, leading from stonework masonry into a structure that seemed to be more organic than anything else- a giant room that appeared to have been designed to look like a rib-cage... in fact, our view has found the core of the White Moon.  
Imprisoned in a block of ice that should have been impossible in these temperatures were a giant monster, almost like an ancient dinosaur of evil origin frozen in place, and scattered around near the surface were various figures- tiny things in scale to that giant beast in the center of it all.  
One appeared to be female, with a perpetual smile etched on her face, and frozen in place as she was, you could swear that you could hear her humming a familiar, ominous melody.  
  
Our view shifts to a small chamber offset from that giant room- a massive pool of yellow liquid resting in the center of a room that was very similar in skeletal design to the last, but at the far end of it were four pillars that looked like hearts- three were topped with theater masks like the ones on the flags, while the fourth had been shattered beyond repair.  
  
[And there, in the center of those four pillars, was a human-sized being sitting on a throne](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-urheyRr2Xj0/U0VWYcQST7I/AAAAAAABLVs/Ysi3ISsC564/s1600/%5BOver-Time%5D+Voltasaur+Team+Kyoryuger+-+45v2+%5B3B7451B4%5D.mkv_snapshot_19.28_%5B2014.03.25_02.55.00%5D.jpg). He held a staff that was tipped with a stylized version of that stylized "D" image along with four faces- one of which was blackened out with paint.

His clothes were simply royal robes of some kind, but prominently on his face was a mask shaped just like a butterfly.  
  
He stood up, and began walking towards the pool of yellow liquid.  
  
 **~And so Bardiel fell, along with Zeruel and Shamshel.~**  
  
He 'tsk'ed and closed his eyes as he walked over to what appeared to be a plain-board changing curtain, probably left behind by some poor scientist during Second Impact.  
  
 **~I have bid my time, absorbing the knowledge my children fed me upon their deaths.... I know all of your tricks now, Pilot-tachi.~**  
  
This being, clearly an Angel, disrobed and began to don clothing with a more prevalent Butterfly theme.  
  
 **~I have planned, and my plan is flawless, for I am the one who creates all ideas and returns them to this sea of knowledge when they prove indecent for the venue.~**  
  
He re-emerged, wielding not his staff, but instead a sword, sheathed to his side.

 **~I am who was born to oversee. I am who was born to plan. I am who was born to lead.~**  
  
He pulled out a small bottle, and knelt down at the pool to fill the bottle up.  
  
 **~I am who was born to fight only as a last resort....I am...~**  
  
He sealed the bottle and put it in his jacket's inner pockets, before patting down the name tag that had been attached over the heart. It read a single name: "A.D.A.M." in bold letters on the top, and underneath it was a title:  
  
 **~The Administrator of Debo-Angel Machinations.~**  
  
A.D.A.M. raised his left hand as if to snap his fingers.  
  
 **~And I am coming to finish what my children could not.~**  
  
 _SNAP_  
  
And then he was gone with a flash of energy shaped like a cloud of butterflies scattering to the wind.

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn it, Bardiel. You just *had* to hijack my keyboard for those little "Angel Notes" of yours, didn't you? You were a worthy adversary to spar with, mister Knight Cerebus. Now go get lost in the depths of that certain, special type of hell that people like you go to, you bodyjacking angel.
> 
> And so ends the wham chapter that is Chapter 12. This....this was really more of a wham chapter than was intended... Next chapter was meant to be the big "Wham!" chapter, but..... I took the meta breaks off. I think that makes it better for it.. I haven't had as much fun writing anything in a long while as I have had writing this particular chapter.
> 
> If you've read some of my previous works, you might be able to see what subtle cross over has been in the works since the beginning of the story that other people apparently picked up on enough to throw it into the XWAU02 Series here on AO3.... If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, that's fine. You don't need to know what it is I'm talking about to understand what is to come.
> 
> But to summarize: As it turns out, Ritsuko was right. The first impact that killed the dinosaurs was a colonization attempt that failed. Second Impact just resurrected the heavy hitters. Third Impact would finish off humanity and thaw out the rest of the Legion frozen in stasis inside the White Moon.
> 
> Heh, it feels kinda weird having got this all out there now. All I can hope is that this was an enjoyable chapter through and through, and that the rest of this story will continue to be enjoyable for those reading it. I'll admit, I wasn't sure if i wanted to go through with this moment, to put this introduction out there into the story.... but I think (and hope) that this can be enjoyably stand-alone even on its own.
> 
> That said and done.... All of the above still doesn't mean that it *IS* in that same universe!! Even as we're entering the home stretch of what I've plotted for this story, it still means *NOTHING* with regards to the shared universe. Leliel is "next" and after that.... well, after that I'll be making a decision on how to proceed with regards to story universe. 
> 
> I'm *NOT* Going to jump the gun.


	13. See ya on the Flip Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A.D.A.M. makes his move.

Mana Kirishima was walking down the streets towards the nearest entrance to NERV's Geofront.  
  
Well, the nearest sanctioned entrance. The Giant hole in the city from where Zeruel had crashed through the ground still remained where it was.  
  
 _'I'm not doing that unless I want to break my legs,'_ Mana dismissed the thought with a shake of her head.  
  
As she walked, she mused on how quiet the city had been over the last week since the storm that had struck the city with the full force of three Angels.  
  
It had been, quite simply, a mess.  
  
But even so, the city had retained some semblance of life, construction, mostly, but the city, even in its quietened state now, still was alive...  
  
 _'That said,'_ Mana shivered, _'it's really cold for this time of year...how odd.'_  
  
Cold and quiet.  
  
Everything seemed just too quiet all of a sudden.  
  
Mana glanced around as an ever growing familiar itch began to form at the back of her mind.  
  
"Not now..." She frowned as she shivered again, trying to speed up her walk to the Geofront... "Not Now...!"  
  
 **~Yes, Now.~** And then the butterfly man stepped out from the shadows, reaching a hand out towards the very scared girl, **~Come, Daughter. I have use of your powers.~**  
  
Mana Kirishima tried to scream.

* * *

  
You are the The Administrator of Debo-Angel Machinations, and after capturing your wayward Gatekeeper, you succeeded destroying the Evangelions that had slain so many of your wards.  
  
You release her to feel the full force of her failures. To guide events in such a manner... it is the only explanation for how your children's judgement was impaired. Leliel meddled, working along with Tabris to ensure everything went wrong for your side.  
  
Why they would do this? You are not sure, but even so... you have delivered judgement and are moving to Initiate the Third Impact.  
  
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"  
  
And then you come face to face with the interloper who made the deal with Tabris to cause all of this.  
  
He....he...  
  
He was mocking you, taking on a human guise similar to Tabris' usual shape and age. Silver hair that went wild in all directions, betraying his monstrous nature... his eyes were green.  
  
Green.  
  
The opposite of the red of all Nephilim- humanoid angels...Even your eyes share a similar hue.  
  
Taunting you. Mocking you.  
  
Even his clothes were a mockery of your own battle suit. Purple suit. Like he's a business man.  
  
Some teenaged business man.  
  
And he was smiling at you.  
  
"I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, Administrator-san," the demon says with his serpentine tongue hidden as human. "But that would be a lie."  
  
 **~So...you are the one who provoked this entire mess, drove my two children to betray me.~**  
  
"Two?" He laughed. LAUGHED. "You give me too much credit. If you're referring to that intern out there," he motioned upwards to the hole you had made after following the path Bardiel had left you. "No, she has no clue I even exist. Tabris did this all on his own."  
  
 **~Liar.~**  
  
"I am many things, I have withheld many truths, but in this instance, I am not a liar, Administrator-san."  
  
 **~Then tell me, before I end you, why? Why would Tabris go to such lengths to foul our plans?~**  
  
He smirks. "Have you ever heard of the girl who lived the same eight days of the same August month for an infinite amount of times and made a whole new timeline when she snapped? Or perhaps the story of the girl who wished to save her friends and grew insane repeating the same month over and over again with no end in sight?"  
  
 **~I am aware of those other worlds. It is in my family's nature to be aware of the other worlds that could interfere with The Scenario.~**  
  
"Then you are aware that the rest of your kind hidden inside that moon of yours usually aren't part of your cycle, right?" he smirked.  
  
 **~That is why I refused to thaw them in the last Impact. They are...foreign to the usual cycle, but useful, in this case. A ready and waiting population once we complete Third Impact and take control of this world as we should have done countless cycles ago.~**  
  
"Ah, I see..." The Demon smirked. "Then you should understand why I accepted Tabris' deal. I personally- this version of me in particular- rarely do charity work, but when I stumbled upon that boy, Kaworu as he preferred to be called-" That is NOT Tabris' name. It was a COVER. A LIE. "-and he understood what I was....oh how he pleaded. Do you understand what it is The Impacts do to him, exactly?"  
  
You refuse to answer him.  
  
"They make him loop, endlessly," the Demon says firmly. "Not even linearly at that. How many has it been for you, Administrator? Ten? A hundred? One thousand? Even when that boy finds happy timelines, when he inevitably dies in that world, his soul is simply jettisoned to another timeline at random, forced to go through it all again." the Demon looks you in the eye and you feel _**judgement**_. "Now listen, I've lived a long time... three times the span of the actual multiverse, in fact. Alone. Well, that was before I managed to get a lucky break thanks to another me...a future me. That gave me some...perspective, you see." his eyes flashed- and you see a crimson hourglass in each green orb.  
  
 **~What are you badgering on about??~**  
  
"I am not a nice person, I'll freely admit that I'm a horrible monster..." the Demon glares at you and you feel fear for the first time in your long life. "But even I have my standards. And if there's one thing I can't abide by, it's a monster who would willingly put someone through the same hell that made me. But you see...where I have been alone, he has had to suffer the same eternal death and resurrection with people who he has loved so very much...and each time he resets, they forget."  
  
 **~And so the cycle shall continue until we complete Third Impact and--~**  
  
"Blah. Blah. BLAH." He was holding his hand out and moving it like it was a mouth.  
  
 **~You are-~** "Third Impact." **~An infuriat-~** "Never Stops." **~STOP.~** "Happening." **~SHUT UP THIS INSTANT YOU-!~** _"Ever."_  
  
You GROWL.  
  
He has brought you to GROWLING....  
  
Except that your body refuses to actually perform the motion.  
  
It's then that you notice that a particle of dust has been hanging in front of your eyes for the length of this entire conversation.  
  
He has literally frozen time around you to have this conversation. Soul to Soul- eye to eye.  
  
Your eyes are the only things moving.  
  
He smirks when he sees that you understand the situation.  
  
 **~What do you think to accomplish, Demon? What do you even WANT?~**  
  
"I only wish to provide you context for the reasons I personally accepted this deal before I decided I could use it for my own ends," He smirked. "And that context is that I do not wish to have another me running around. Comparatively, our young boy Kaworu there is still an infant, despite how long he has lived in this endless cycle. I...I am granting him release from the end of this cycle by doing what I've done....but not here, not in this timeline, oh no. I'm going to make use of this branched, non-doomed timeline you have OH SO HELPFULLY made Alpha by making it this far.... and I am going to use it to do something I rarely indulge in."  
  
 **~And what would that be?~** You are actually finding yourself intrigued, in that way that means you don't actually know where something is going.  
  
"As I said, nobody deserves to be forced through what I've been forced through," The demon then said simply. "Don't you get it yet? What I want is simple indeed... I want **YOU**. _**Dead.**_ "  
  
And then he transformed with a blinding flash of green rings of energy....no.... symbols. Two of them in fact, repeating over and over again in various patterns.  
  
Zero and One.  
  
And then the giant beast that had replaced the demon grabs the Lance out of Lilith's corpse and his voice echoes out the last words you will ever hear.  
  
 **"Goodbye, Administrator-chan."** and then with his other three hands, he charges energy and fires off blasts of energy. **_"Gap Ryushi Hou!"_**  
  
The fight of your life begins...  
  
And you lose within five heart-beats.  
  
...

 _ **ZAP-** clatter-CLINK!_  
  
Mana Kirishima had landed on a table.  
  
It was just an ordinary table- wood, solid construction, round....  
  
And covered in food. Mana had literally landed on someone's breakfast, and now it was pretty much scattered all over her.  
  
"Um, Mana....?" Mana blinked as she looked down at the person who had spoken.  
  
It was Shinji Ikari, holding a frying pan full of eggs and staring in confusion at the girl that had just landed on his table.  
  
HIS TABLE?!  
  
Shinji Ikari was ALIVE  
  
That meant that...!  
  
"Woah- I didn't know you knew how to conjure up people, Shinji!" Misato Katsuragi came in from the bathroom- looking completely baffled at the scene before her.  
  
"She just appeared in a flash of light," And then Rei Ayanami spoke behind Mana, and she spun around to look at the still alive blue haired girl.  
  
"It worked," Mana breathed. "It actually worked!"

"What worked?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Quick, what day is it!? When was the last Angel battle??" Mana jumped off of the table in a hurry.  
  
"Uh..." Misato frowned. "A week ago...?"  
  
"How many?" Mana asked.  
  
"I just said--" Misato cut herself off before realizing what the girl was asking. "Three. Three angels. Twelve through Fourteen."  
  
Mana took a few moments to process this information, and then she asked, "What time is it?"  
  
"Seven Fifteen?" Rei volunteered the information. "Last I looked, anyways."  
  
Mana steeled herself as she felt a shiver run down her spine. "I know this is going to sound really, really, bad....but I just got kidnapped by the next angel."  
  
"And it sent you here?" Shinji raised an eyebrow.  
  
"No! That was another me from this morning...." Mana closed her eyes, "This is so weird, I'm not even really sure if this is actually happening or not. What if this is all a dream caused by Third Impact?"  
  
"Impact??" That got Misato's attention. "You just survived a Third Impact!?"

"I-I don't know," Mana replied, "a girl showed up out of nowhere after A.D.A.M. went to confront Lilith but then something stopped him and this girl offered me a chance to fix things...to change things...!" She looked everyone in the eye for at least three seconds before moving on to the next. "Please tell me this isn't just a dream...! I don't want to world to have ended because of me!"  
  
"Why would the world have ended because of you?" Rei asked.  
  
Mana took a moment to think over her options. She could lie...she could tell the truth.... she could....she could....  
  
"Because I've got an Angel by the name of Leliel, who can open up inter-dimensional gateways, stuck inside my head?"  
  
She could just flat out sound like a lunatic.  
  
That works.  
  
Silence filled the room for a few moments, before Misato asked, "Shinji? Would you say that the hand that grabbed you and sent you to NERV back when Arael and Iruel attacked....was it a girl's hand?"  
  
"Um, Rei?" Shinji turned to Rei, "Put your right hand on my shoulder?" Rei did such. "Yeah," Shinji nodded. "It was a girl."  
  
Misato turned to Mana, "You do it too."  
  
"Why do I--Oh! Right!" Mana realized it rather quickly. She'd just said 'inter-dimensional gateways' as an Angel power, and was just dropped on a table full of food. That made sense to make sure it wasn't her.  
  
Mana put her hand on the Shinji's shoulder, and he asked, "How old was that girl you saw?"

"About sixteen," Mana relayed the info.  
  
"That fits," Shinji said with a nod. "Bigger hand than Rei's, but smaller than Mana's."  
  
"So we've got a teleporter trying to stop Impact," Misato summarized. "Well, that's just great," she whipped out her cellphone and started dialing, "Ritz, prep Rocket and Milano for battle.... call it a gut feeling, but we've got another Angel showing up today." She hung up and asked, "How long?"  
  
"I think about three hours," Mana guessed.  
  
"About?" Misato asked.  
  
"Hey, you try keeping track of time when you're being absorbed into the freaking Administration Angel in a really painful way and then have to watch him kill everyone and everything with just a snap of his fingers!" Mana practically snapped herself just then.  
  
"Alright, geeze," Misato scratched at the back of her head. "Shinji, go wake Asuka up, we've got to get to NERV right away."  
  
"On it," Shinji handed the skillet over to Rei, and she took it back into the kitchen as he went over to Asuka's room to wake her up.  
  
"You believe me?" Mana asked.

"I'm not happy you've kept the whole 'angel in my head' thing from us," Misato shook her head. "But if you've really come back to help us, especially after what Rei told us Bardiel said about Tabris betraying the other Angels... I'm not going to be the idiot who turns down help when it's offered."  
  
Mana's eyes widened at that. "T...Thank you, Captain!" And then she bowed in sincere thanks.  
  
"Captain?" Misato frowned, "I got promoted to Major."  
  
"....What?" Mana blinked. "Huh. I guess that girl changed something else along the line somewhere..."  
  
"We'll have to compare notes on the way," Misato said as Shinji came out of Asuka's bedroom with a still sleeping Second Child strung across his back.  
  
"She told me to either carry her or leave her, and then went right back to sleep," Shinji grumbled, "so I'm taking the risk she'll punch me later to get us going now."  
  
"Works for me," Misato smiled sadly.

* * *

 

"Wait- the Fourteenth didn't explode?" Misato asked in surprise as she drove them towards the Geofront.  
  
"No," Mana shook her head. "Unit-02 went after him after devouring Zeruel, and then did just about the same thing," she shuddered into the back of the front row passenger seat. "It was horrifying seeing it once, let alone twice."  
  
"Alright so that's our first major divergence," Misato nodded. "Let's keep working backwards and see what else is different."  
  
Meanwhile, as Mana related the rest of her timeline in reverse, Shinji and Rei worked to keep Asuka sitting straight in the back seat by sandwiching her between them.  
  
"Hey, Rei," Shinji began as he fished out the mp3 player from his pocket, "since it seems things are going to go to hell today, I figured I might as well give you this early."  
  
"Hm?" Rei looked over as Shinji handed her the player over Asuka's lap. "You...got this for me?"  
  
"I was going to give it to you later, schedule a whole birthday party on a whole different day just s that you didn't have to have it on the 29th all the time, but..." He gave a faint smile. "I'd rather give it even still locked up as it is rather than not be able to give it at all. Happy birthday, Rei."  
  
"Wow....thank you," Rei smiled and looked the thing over. "So what music is on it?"

"Well, a lot of anime soundtracks, according to the guy who sold it to me," Shinji explained, "but I checked everything on it, and it turns out there's some stuff from the Digimon anime on there, which I was kind of hoping for. Man, did I luck out on that or what?"  
  
"Shinji, you are the best kinda-sorta-older brother a girl could have," Rei grinned with delight as she pocketed the player. "Thank you!"  
  
"Ah! That's a major divergence right there!" Mana cried out suddenly.  
  
"Huh? What?" Asuka snapped awake. "Where's the butterfly!?"  
  
Mana flinched at that, but tried not to let it show as she repeated her and Misato's discovery for Asuka (And Shinji and Rei, as they weren't listening). "Jet Alone actually exploded in my time line! That's what you were talking about before right, with the hand thing?"  
  
Shinji's mouth formed an "O" as he realized what she meant, "So the girl who sent you back, also sent me to NERV and at the same time...!"  
  
"Probably shoved the exploding Jet Alone into the Fourteenth Angel," Misato finished the sentence.  
  
Mana agreed, "Which makes a whole lot of sense as for why things went differently for me the first time around. Misato only got promoted once because the Jet Alone exploded and there was a lot of clean up to do, but putting it into last week's battle..."  
  
"Means that anyone who's observing wouldn't realize that that's where the Jet Alone went," Misato nodded. "I'll have to have some dive crews look through the debris to see if we can find anything."

"Um...." Asuka blinked. "What are we talking about?"  
  
"Mana's got an Angel inside her head, and she came back from the future to stop the king daddy of all angels coming to kill us all in a really brutal fashion," Rei summarized.  
  
"....What angel?" Asuka asked.  
  
"Leliel," Mana explained, "she's sort of a--"  
  
"Multi-dimensional being that usually manifests as a giant black hole in space?" Asuka guessed.  
  
"...How did you...?" Mana's face showed a look of confusion on her face.  
  
"I've had nightmares," Asuka said simply. "That big daddy angel....he doesn't happen to have a lot of butterflies on his clothes, right?"  
  
"Actually, yeah," Mana nodded, "that's A.D.A.M. in a nutshell."  
  
"Angelic Administration Monster..." Asuka grumbled. "Man, why did I get the crap-sack dreams of a doomed timeline for!?"  
  
"You....you've seen where I came from?" Mana's eyes went wide.  
  
"Since just after the Eighth," Asuka nodded.  
  
"....Wait, the Eighth..." Mana mused for a moment. "Was there anything weird that happened during that night?"

"Well," Shinji began, "we did find our plug-suits moved randomly, and Rei saw a ghost of herself pointing at a stairwell...Some techs say they've started seeing it too, actually. It's pretty much the rumor in NERV right now, beyond the usual Angel talk."  
  
"That I do not remember hearing about," Mana mused on that for a moment. "I think that might be our first break point."  
  
"There might be something else too," Asuka began, "were you and Rei closer in the other timeline?"  
  
"Uhh..." Mana blinked. "Why do you ask?"  
  
"Because Rei got really mad and tried to get you out of the big bad butterfly in the dreams," Asuka explained.  
  
"Uh, well," Mana scratched at her nose. "We didn't really get all that close. Hell, I'd talked with Shinji more than anyone else thanks to that birthday project you asked me about."  
  
"MP3 player?" Shinji asked.  
  
"Actually finding a working cassette tape recorder," Mana shook her head. "You were going to copy your walkman tape for her birthday, after you gave up on the mp3 player scrambling your laptop's language settings."  
  
"Shinji! You must get me one of those!" Rei grinned at him, "Or at least get me copy MP3s to put on the player."  
  
"So what I came to you about the MP3 player for is a divergence point too?" Shinji frowned. "That still doesn't explain the esoteric programming."

"Huuh," Mana blinked. "Yeah, that is Weird. You'd almost expect that thing to have been dropped in from some other timeline." She shook her head, "Anyways, I remember that "give me back" thing, and I remember what A.D.A.M. said pretty clearly before that. Mostly it was just him lording a hostage over you guys, so I don't think my Rei would've wanted to get me back any more importantly other than just to get me out of the way so you guys could fight..." She paused, "And by the way, the me from this timeline is probably going to be in the exact same situation. But we might be able to stand a chance now with me here to run interference."  
  
"What do you have in mind?" Shinji asked.

* * *

 

The plan was ludicrous.  
  
The plan was freaking INSANE.  
  
The plan sounded like it was ripped straight out of a video game.  
  
Your name is Ritsuko Akagi, and you **_LIKE_** the plan.  
  
"Only problem with it is that we'll need to thaw Unit-02," Gendo mused aloud once he heard the plan, but, the smirk on his face said all that you needed to know before he gave the order to do it,

* * *

 

 **~I HAVE COME!~** There were bursts of green lightning as his A.T. fields flared, and A.D.A.M. grew.  
  
A.D.A.M. grew to the height of buildings, and he looked around the ruined city. **~I will crush you all with the hate congealed as you slayed my wards! So Come out and face me, you mu--!~** And then a bullet bounced off of one of his A.T. fields- just to the left of his head.  
  
 _ **THAT**_ was one way to ruin a grand entrance, A.D.A.M. scowled internally. A whole speech planned out and someone was sequence breaking through the dialogue.  
  
A.D.A.M. spun around to look at the perpetrator, and he glared.  
  
 **~Ah...the red one who _Ate_ Zeruel. Why am I not surprised to see you out here before anyone else?~**  
  
_"Because we saw your A.T. field vanish from Antarctica and knew you were coming?"_ the robot holding a pitiful looking gun said with the voice of a girl. Ah, well that was unexpected.  
  
 **~I AM surprised that they let you out of your cage, little one. Don't they usually punish those who eat other sentient beings alive?~**  
  
_"I am Groot."_ Suddenly, it spoke with a different voice.  
  
A.D.A.M. paused. **~You....what?~**  
  
_"He said look behind you, you big dumb goof,"_ Asuka translated, and A.D.A.M. did just that.

  
Unit-05 had a laser trained on A.D.A.M.'s chest and had already unleashed a barrage of missiles upon him...  
  
A.D.A.M.'s A.T. Fields casually blocked all of the first wave, and a second wave never came.  
  
 **~Warning me was foolish.~** A.D.A.M. glared at Unit-05, and drew his sword, even as he let out a sharp whistle that made the entire skies cloud over as a giant ring of light appeared above him.  
  
 **~Go, my boneless child... _ARMISAEL!~_** A.D.A.M. ordered, and then the glowing ring of light pulsed, and then an explosion of dark-blue matter formed inside of the ring, spawning dozens of falling clouds of miasma that, upon hitting the ground, began forming into half-sized clones of the various Angels that had been fought so far.

* * *

 

 **_CODE BLUE CONFIRMED! FIFTEENTH ANGEL CONFIRMED!_**  
  
Misato smirked, "And there's Mister D.N.A."

* * *

 

"I'll handle the pipsqueaks!" Rei called out as she and Rocket began directing their missile supplies on the little clone army.  
  
_"Got it! Butterfly man's mine!"_ Asuka roared as Unit-02 dove at A.D.A.M., only to be repulsed by his A.T. fields acting like a spring board.  
  
And then the ring angel, Armisael, began to sing.  
  
 _ **~DEE, DEE, DEE, DEESTRUCTIOONNN!~**_  
  
"Not this song again...!" Rei grit her teeth as the half-sized angel clones suddenly began to start growing. "SHINJI!! NOW!!"  
  
On a hill-top overlooking the whole city, Unit-01 sat with an Eva-scale sniper rifle....  
  
"You sound like you could use a break..!" Shinji pulled back the safety and then let loose a shot.  
  
The rifle let out a bark of power as it shot a massive, glowing projectile straight at Armisael's center.  
  
A.D.A.M. reacted first- extending his A.T. Field upwards to block the blast meant for Armisael.

* * *

 

He momentarily left himself open for Mana to slip through the large hexagon plates and leap up onto his leg. She had a determined look on her face as she began climbing up the side of his leg, cloaking herself with a faint shadow so as not to be noticed by the giant she was about to rattle.

* * *

 

  
"HEY! DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME!" Asuka fired off a few more pot-shots at A.D.A.M. to get his attention back on her.  
  
 **~How could I forget about the most brutal of my children's murders?~** A.D.A.M. asked as he held out a hand and uttered three words... _**~Ven...RIK DAH!~**_  
  
A burst of elemental wind pushed off of his hand and soared straight at Unit-02- slamming into the Eva and throwing it backwards by a whole city block.  
  
He then turned towards Unit-05 and glared. _**~Rul Sah Saraan, Sinon Sahqon Sahqo Sos Fent Ru!~**_  
  
And then the cloned Angels all turned blood red as they turned into liquid LCL and began to fuse together into a wave that came crashing down upon Unit-05.  
  
Rei and Rocket screamed in surprise as they began to be pushed out to sea by the torrent of trans-mutated cloned angels.

* * *

  
Shinji swore as he and A.D.A.M. both stared at each other, each were taking stock of the situation from their unique vantage points.  
  
Shinji closed his eyes and thought back to what Mana had explained before...  
  
"The Revak Rotmulag- Sacred Words of Power- are what he uses as his primary attacks." The memory echoed, "They're powerful, yes, but if he mis-speaks, he could damage himself. So he's not going to launch a one hit kill in one sentence unless it's the end of the battle and he's sure we're not going to be able to interrupt."  
  
Asuka had agreed with that, saying that the A.D.A.M. in her dreams had definitely tried toying with them; first by stalling for time by making them worry about his (then unknown) hostage, and then attacking while their guard had been down.  
  
Shinji and Milano discussed their options.  
  
 _'I don't think he can hit us at this distance,'_ Shinji gauged. _'Which means he'll either have to come up here to get us, or he'll ignore us and let us keep taking shots at him.'_  
  
 _'Maybe, but what if he's...?'_ Milano's eyes caught the next attack. _'Coming after us!'_  
 **  
~WULD...~** And then Adam crouched as if to run, and his fields flickered as if they were going to... _ **~Na-~ BLAM!!!**_ Shinji fired. _**~AAAHGAHDINOK!!!!!!~**_ The shot hit A.D.A.M. in the foot, causing him to mangle his reality changing shout to something that wasn't what he wanted, as he threw up defensive A.T. fields to prevent any more attacks from getting through to him.

Suddenly- that wave of water that was flushing Unit-05 down the city disappeared, reforming as but a single, mutilated mess of an Angel that stumbled around in confusion.  
  
Rocket cracked a grin and raised the laser bow- _"Say Goodnight, Ugly!"_  
  
 _ **PREEWWNNNNN**_  
  
The poor behemoth fell dead, and collapsed into LCL without a mission....LCL that was then pulled upwards like reverse rain into Armisael's whirling vortex to be reformed into new angel clones.  
  
One such clone, of the Sixth Angel, hissed as it flopped around on dry land- apparently having missed landing in the water by a few good city blocks.  
  
Asuka ran it through with her recently retrieved harpoon.  
  
_"Freaking...!"_ She growled.  
  
A.D.A.M. healed the damage to his foot, and stood back up, glaring at Unit-01. **~You _won't_ get away with that again.~** He warned, holding a hand out to aim at the sniper Eva.

"Getting out of here!" Milano picked them up along with the gun and ran away.  
 _ **  
~Liivrah Ok Morah...~**_ A.D.A.M. began to chant. Rei took a chance, grabbing one of the Ninth Angel clones, picking it up and hurling it at A.D.A.M.'s A.T. field shields. _**~Paak Dii Paal Da--~**_ The poor Arael clone smashed into the shields and screeched loudly as it was shredded on the sharp edges, but enough made it through to disrupt A.D.A.M's concentration. _**~-ah!!!?~**_  
  
The sentence suddenly made no sense, and the reality altering Magic lost track of what he was trying to say.  
  
Needless to say, A.D.A.M. got quite a headache that only made him madder at the pilots.  
  
Asuka became the target to focus that anger as she came running at him with that harpoon weapon.  
  
A.D.A.M. drew his sword and they began clashing weapons- making sure to keep his A.T. fields open only where his sword would go through, and reinforcing it everywhere else.

* * *

 

Unit-01 resettled in a new sniping position, and Shinji switched to an internal radio. "How's the progress?"  
  
_"We're filling the major gaps right now with Bakelite,"_ Misato reported. _"If he decides to break off of the battle, he's not going to get very far."_  
  
"Mana?" Shinji asked.  
  
_"She should be three-fourths of the way up his leg right now,"_ Maya reported.  
  
"And what about our surprise for the Fifteenth?" Shinji asked as he looked down on the battle.  
  
Unit-05 was being swarmed by Angel Clones, but doing fairly well for now. All of the upgrades done to Unit-05 made it a very formidable killing machine. Rei and Rocket could hold their own until the next stage of the plan.  
  
Unit-02 had brought a trident-harpoon to a sword fight, but that was precisely why she was running without any umbilical cable. That "S2" organ Mana explained that Unit-02 had eaten was powering the Eva without any city connection. A.D.A.M. had no way of severing power to Asuka directly.  
  
And the Fifteenth Angel, Armisael, was just circling over head, dropping angel clones left and right, even as Rei flattened the little, one-hit-point critters that were swarming her. It still was singing, loudly, and would likely bring another Angel in at this rate.

_"We've got the retrovirus uploaded and ready to broadcast through the special round,"_ Ritsuko answered.  
  
"Understood," Shinji and Milano said as one as they took out a special sniper round from their shoulder pauldron, and slotted it into the sniper rifle's cartridge.  
  
"Cry baby cry," Shinji breathed.  
  
"Make your papa sigh," Milano's voice sounded like she was grinning.  
  
 _ **BANG!**_  
  
Armisael and A.D.A.M. were both distracted when the shot echoed out. Armisael, naturally, it didn't matter what they used to break through the Angel's A.T. field, in fact, direct contact with its A.T. field was exactly what Shinji wanted, but contact with any part of the Angel would do fine just the same...  
  
A.D.A.M. was the real trouble maker, but his distraction took the form of Unit-02 keeping his attention focused away from Armisael, because if he was hit by the virus shot instead of Armisael, things could get very bad very quickly.  
  
The shot spiraled through the air....

* * *

 

"It took about ten minutes before Armisael warmed up enough to spawn fully fledged angels without having to use the song to power them up," Mana had said.  
  
"So we take it out before it can get to that point," Misato mused. "Anyone got any ideas?"  
  
Shinji raised his hand, and asked "Anyone seen the movie _Independence Day_?"

* * *

 

...The Virus Special hit Armisael square on- and then began delivering a precise voltage through the Angel's body.  
  
Armisael's singing suddenly warped and lurched, becoming scrambled through the sudden shock.  
  
The portal spawning angel clones began to flicker and spit out random bursts of energy instead of creating what it needed to.  
  
 **~WHAT DID YOU DO!?~** A.D.A.M. turned, staring up at Armisael in horror and shock, lowering part of his shields in surprise.  
  
_"HIIIYAH!"_  
  
Asuka took that chance to stab A.D.A.M. in his left side with the harpoon.  
  
 **~GRK!~** A.D.A.M. flinched at the impalement, and glared at Unit-02. **~Just what was that supposed to accomplish?~**  
  
_"Nunya!"_ Asuka stuck her tongue out.  
  
 _ **~What!?~**_  
  
_"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"_ Asuka then pressed in deep with the harpoon-trident, and then with a slight twist, yanked it out quickly.  
A.D.A.M. knelled over and threw up multiple A.T. Field domes to keep any attacks from getting in....  
  
Unfortunately for him, he didn't notice a stealth-ed Mana Kirishima leaping up the final distance to the newly made entrances into his body, and leaped inside before they could begin to heal up.  
  
He didn't notice because Asuka kept pounding away at the shields and he had to focus to keep them up.

* * *

 

Mana landed inside A.D.A.M.'s insides- which were surprisingly roomy, similar in composition to the insides of the White Moon.  
  
She tabbed at the radio in her ear once, "I'm in," and then tabbed it off again before racing across the "walkway" she had landed on (actually A.D.A.M.'s hipbone) towards a "Ladder" that went upwards and onwards (His Spine) towards the large ribcage above her, containing an S2 organ, and two glowing cores.  
  
One was solid orange, the other black and white striped.

* * *

 

A.D.A.M.'s eyes flared in anger as Armsiael fell to the ground in a drunken stupor, twitching and twisting around as it broke out of its ring shape and began curling inwards onto itself.  
  
 **~My child, speak to me! What is wrong!?~**  
  
What followed from Armisael was a muttered, garbled sentence of nonsense images and static, the most common of which would have been a red hourglass inside a green circle.

* * *

Shinji and Milano shared a mental high five as they got up to join the battle below.  
  
"We came, we saw, we gave heaven the best gift imaginable," Shinji joked.  
  
"We made an Angel catch a cold!" Milano laughed.

* * *

 

Armisael put up about as much of a defense as computer that had just been hit with a nasty virus- that is to say, not very much.  
  
Unit-05 incinerated the Angel with a single strike of a laser bow.  
  
A.D.A.M. stared for a few moments. **~You....~** his eyes began to glow. _ **~YOU...!~**_  
  
And then his A.T. fields exploded outwards as he let loose a guttural roar of anger- pushing everything around him in a giant spherical shape away as fast as was physically possible.  
  
The whole of Tokyo-3 shook and rolled at the sound, buildings were reduced to ruins, and two Evangelions slammed into the dirt, hard.  
  
Inside her Entry Plug, Asuka cracked open an eye. "Welp, looks like we hit stage two...!"

* * *

 

The S2 organ pulsed with energy as the entire skeletal structure shook with anger.  
  
Hanging onto the ladder-like spine, Mana grimaced at the sheer amount of energy being put out. "Craaaap, we really push him fast this time...!"

* * *

 

Unit-01 disengaged the power cable, then leaped into the air to avoid the shock wave of air that came from that explosion, and they aimed their sniper rifle at A.D.A.M's fluctuating dome of spinning A.T. field plates.  
  
 **BLAM!**  
  
The shot flew true.  
  
A.D.A.M. saw it coming and simply willed an A.T. field to appear inside the round, splitting it in two as it went around either side of his head, and then he set his sights on the still air-borne Unit-01.  
  
"Not happening to us!" Milano shifted their trajectory in mid air, summoning A.T. plates under their feet, and then running across it.  
  
 _ **~THIEVES! MURDERERS AND THIEVES!~**_ A.D.A.M. yelled, gathering up energy in his hands and throwing out rainbow colored beams of energy. _**~JUST DIE!~**_  


* * *

 

Mana carefully stepped out onto one of the organic branches holding the white and black striped core into the rib cage. Everything shook around her, and she called upon some of Leliel's powers to stabilize her vision.  
  
"Just a little bit further...!" She began walking away from the spine onto the tight rope suspended over the abyss that was A.D.A.M.'s gut- full of organs and other things, including a stomach filled with a disturbing yellow liquid.  
  
Falling into that could have disastrous consequences....such as making Mana grow in size which was a situation that would be rather messy inside of A.D.A.M.'s torso like this.   
  
Mana heard a familiar cry from Unit-05, and the whole of A.D.A.M.'s body shook as if having been pile-drived into the ground.  
  
In fact, that was likely what had just happened as gravity suddenly shifted and began tilting towards the front of the rib cage.  
  
"Crap crap crap!!" Mana began sliding down the 'slide' towards the bi-colored Core.  
  
A.D.A.M. quickly righted himself, and gravity returned to normal, but the whole event had given Mana the chance to get closer to the Core that contained her alternate self.  
  
So close, in fact, that she was able to peer through its crystalline surface inside.  
  
There she was...Mana Kirishima.

"Wow....I didn't think my hair was _that_ red!" Mana shook her head and hurried to the edge of the core. She took a breath, and put her hands against the core... A core that was specifically designed to negate any and all of Leliel's powers, either from the inside....or outside for that matter.  
  
"Right...I guess now this is where I take your advice...." And she closed her eyes and thought back to that moment between worlds.  
  
 _"If you need help to change things,"_ The twin tailed girl had said before letting go of Mana's hand, _"think the words..."_  
  
" **[Dinosaur Gun]** ," Mana said aloud, and a moment later, there was a faint breeze, and a musical melody... then a whispered word.  
  
 _"Duck."_  
  
Then there was the sound of something being spun and charging up loudly along with a loud boisterous cry of: _**_VAMOLA!_**_  
  
Mana ducked down, and just in time to allow a blast of energy shaped like a giant grey wrecking ball smashed into the side of the core with a cried sound of, _**_BUN BUN!_**_  
  
Mana glanced back over her shoulder towards the way she'd came, just in time to see a fading burst of blue light and a _**ZAP**_.  
  
The outline shape burned itself into Mana's vision. Whoever that was, was _**Not**_ the last girl, like Mana had expected, but a boy. But, whoever he was, it was impossible to tell due to the fact that he had already disappeared, and his face had seemingly been covered by something (A helmet? Or was it just the glowing zap-y effects?), but really, Mana suspected, what did it even matter in the long run?

Mana turned back to the inside of the core, and the other Mana was looking up in surprise.  
  
"Wh...what the hell!?" the Mana inside the core asked in surprised.  
  
"Don't worry, I'm here to rescue you!" Mana smiled as she grabbed her alternate self's hands and then willed her to somewhere safe....the safest place Mana could think of.  
  
Leliel's powers did the rest- and the other her disappeared as if fading out like a shadow losing its light source.

* * *

 

Your name is Misato Katsuragi, and your wayward Intern randomly appeared in the middle of the room with out a single clue what the hell just happened.

* * *

 

A.D.A.M. stopped.  
  
 **~you....What did you _DO!?_ ~ **He growled as he faced off the three Evangelion Units that had formed a sort of triangle formation around him. **~How...I feel as if you just ripped out an important....but that's impossible. _HOW_ could you know about the hostage card!? _HOW!?_ I hadn't even _TOLD_ you about it!~**  
  
Unit-02 laughed with a reply of _"I am Groot!"_  
  
Unit-05 chimed in via Rei, _"That about sums it up."_  
  
Unit-01 agreed via Shinji, _"No need to translate."_  
  
_"Eyuuup,"_ Milano's grin was practically audible, quite a feat considering her lack of mouth to grin with.  
  
_"Grooty's a master of words,"_ Asuka chuckled.  
  
_"I'm shedding a tear here,"_ Rocket sniffed. _"Such a wonderful poem of your eternal screw up!"_  
  
A.D.A.M. growled at them.

* * *

 

And then Mana turned her attention to the Orange Core and the S2 organ, tabbing the radio on one last time, "She's out, I'm activating the final stage of the plan." She closed her eyes, and when they opened again, they had been overtaken with a black shine.  
  
"I'd say it's time I show you what a royal mess you've made out of this situation, father," Leliel spoke through Mana. "You could have left me alone, but no. You brought this on yourself by trapping me inside yourself..."  
  
And then her body shifted, rippled, and then....

* * *

 

  
Suddenly, A.D.A.M. clutched at where his heart would be. **~GRRK..! What....what are you...~**  
  
And then his shadow began to transform, shifting from a humanoid form into something....round.  
  
"And that's our cue to take a step back!" Asuka said as she and Shinji quickly backed away before a cone of A.T. fields appeared in front of them, separating them from A.D.A.M....  
  
Then a message appeared in her line of sight, saying what they already knew.  
  
 **_Code Blue Confirmed. Sixteenth Angel Identified._**  
  
It wasn't A.D.A.M.'s fields, it was Leliel's.  
  
However, due to Unit-05's massive size, moving away quickly had not gone as smoothly as had been planned.  
  
"Crap!" Rei swore as she saw her power cord severed by the fields, leaving herself trapped inside the whirling cone of fields.  
 **  
~LELIEL! You traitorous child! I should have known you would figure a way out sooner or later...~** A.D.A.M growled, **~You think to trap me inside the Dirac Sea!? THINK AGAIN!~** He laughed. _ **~Krii Pah...~**_  
  
"REI! GET OUT OF THERE!" Shinji yelled out, and Units 01 and 02 immediately began to try to break through Leliel's shield, the plan be damned.  
  
 _ **~...Voth Yol Toor...~**_ A.D.A.M. continued to chant. _**~...Ahrk Fus..~**_  
  
"No, Shinji stop!!" Rei moved to interrupt throwing Unit-05 at the boss Angel yet again, but this time holding him firmly in place. "MANA!" She yelled, "EXPAND IT SO I CAN FIT!"

 _ **~Ol Zu'u Zahramiik...~**_ A.D.A.M. didn't stop chanting, even ignoring the Evangelion trying to crush his chest in.  
  
Rei opened a quick screen to Shinji and Asuka, "Thank you."  
  
 ** _~Dii Zii Ol Orin...~_** A.D.A.M.'s shadow expanded quicker, and then reached a circumference that was wide enough to start pulling both A.D.A.M. and Unit-05 into the portal.  
  
"Rei- Wait!" Shinji reached out. "We can stop this and--!"  
  
 _ **~Nahkriin Ahrk...~**_  
  
"Goodbye," Rei smiled.  
  
 ** _~Nax Neh Oblaan!!~_**  
  
And then the shadow swallowed the two of them up in a single explosion of black-colored water before settling- and for a few moments, that Dirac Sea existed there as a small puddle of black liquid sorrow on the ground before a faint flicker of orange light could be seen distantly inside.  
  
Then, the whole thing just disintegrated as if the energy maintaining it had stopped existing, just as the A.T. field dome that had surrounded them disappeared.

* * *

 

Misato didn't care that the screen above her said that the A.T. fields for the First and Sixteenth Angels had gone silent.  
  
All that she cared about was the fact that suddenly, against the plan...  
  
Rei, Rocket, and the recently completed Unit-05...  
  
Had simply disappeared along with the First Angel.  
  
The rescued Mana just collapsed to the floor, muttering, "She's gone." She stared blankly into space. "I can't feel her inside my head anymore...."  
  
Misato grimaced, and amended that count.  
  
Leliel, possibly one of the only Friendly Angels they would ever encounter, had just disappeared as well.  
  
Most likely, she was dead.  
  
In fact, the MAGI would probably percentage it as a 100% chance that everyone who entered that portal was dead.  
  
But Misato was one of those people that firmly believed in the phrase, "Never tell me the odds!"   
  
"Even if it's one percent..." Misato breathed, "there's still a chance they survived..."

* * *

 

Less than half an hour later, Gendo Ikari stood silently in the large room that all who knew of it called the "Reiquarium," for the second time in the last year, Gendo stood in this room with hope.  
  
Hope that the girl who looked so much like his wife hadn't died permanently.  
  
"Memory transfer isn't holding," Ritsuko sighed. "There isn't a loose soul to pull back."  
  
Depite the failure, Gendo sighed in relief. "Then...she is alive."  
  
"That, or her soul's lost to some other timeline where we can't reach it," Ritsuko shook her head. "Timeline. That's a word I didn't expect to be using anytime soon."  
  
"Disconnect the clone," Gendo ordered, turning to return to the surface, "I will inform that-"  
  
The heart rate monitor connected to that current Rei clone suddenly spiked, leading to both Gendo and Ritsuko turning in surprise as the lights in the room flickered, and a static buzzing filled the room.  
  
And then, Gendo saw his angel.  
  
Not in the eldritch sense, the monsters that had been attacking the city non stop...  
  
But his personal, long lost angel.  
  
In a flickering burst of static, there was the face of his wife, merging through the glass of the tank and the LCL that kept a soul-less body in stasis....  
  
And then the eyes opened in that clone- not red, but light green. And then hair- shifting from blue to a warming shade of brown...

It was like magic, watching as that young, naked body in the tank growing several years in an instant, aging from barely a teen to the body of the woman that Gendo had not seen in over thirteen years.  
  
And then Yui Ikari smiled at her husband, placing her hands on the tank's glass.  
  
"What the fffluuuuuhhhffyyyy kittyyy..." Ritsuko fainted, and Gendo just stared on in confusion.

* * *

 

Walking down the hallways, dressed in a standard technician's uniform, a teenaged boy with wild, untamed silver hair sang quietly as he walked.  
  
 _"If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain..."_

* * *

 _"If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain..."_  
  
Asuka knocked on the door to Shinji's room, and waited for a response.  
  
None.  
  
 _"If you like making love at midnight in the dunes of the cape,"_  
  
"Shinji?" Asuka pushed open the door slightly, and looked inside.  
  
Empty.  
  
The entire room's contents had been returned to a pristine, unused state, and none of Shinji's belongings were inside.  
  
Asuka ran outside, and looked around for the nearest Section 2 agent.

* * *

 

  
"Then I'm the love that you've looked for,"  
  
Walking down one of tokyo-3's empty streets, Shinji headed towards one of the light rail trains leading out of town.  
  
"Write to me and escape," Shinji muttered along with the song as he looked down the tracks for the approaching train.

* * *

 

In the void of the Dirac Sea, Unit-05, covered in a few burn marks, drifted aimlessly through the void.  
  
 _"Yes, I like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain,"_ Rei hummed quietly, eyes closed as they drifted.  
  
"Yknow," Rocket mused, "this whole 'self-sacrifice' thing gets a little tiring the second time around."  
  
 _"I'm not much into health food,"_ Rei continued to sing, _"I am into champagne."_  
  
"Especially!" Rocket continued on, "Especially when that guy didn't even explode! I mean...what kind of self destruct spell was that even supposed to be!?"

 _"I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon,"_ Rei hummed, _"and cut through all this red tape..."_  
  
"He just sorta flew apart into these orbs and just.....what was that even supposed to be!?" Rocket tried his best to formulate his thoughts.  
  
 _"At a bar called O'Malley's,"_ Rei sang on....  
  
Rocket blinked as the sea of darkness around them began to turn a faint shade of blue. "Wait a minute...That's not..."  
  
 _"Where we'll plan our..."_ Rei paused as she, too, noticed the various pinpricks of light forming around them. "...Escape?"  
  
And then they felt gravity take hold of Unit-05, dragging them downwards through an atmosphere as the heat of re-entry began to drag them through some unknown atmosphere...!  
  
"WOAH! I REALLY WISH WE HAD SOME WINGS RIGHT ABOUT NOW!!!" Rocket yelped  
  
Rei narrowed her eyes and brought the whole Eva out of battery saving mode, and focused all of her energy into a change she knew Unit-05 could undergo.  
  
Asuka had told her it could happen, after all.  
  
The back panel of Unit-05's back exploded off, and metal bars extended out, folding and shifting into shape...  
  
Twin wings of blue energy formed on the four legged Evangelion's back, and they Flapped, slowing their descent rapidly even as they threw a dome of A.T. fields in front of them to deflect the fire.  
  
"Wings...hah..." Rocket laughed. "When did you have those installed?"

"I didn't," Rei replied with a frown as they cleared the initial burst of re-entry, and were able to see what was below them....  
  
It was an Earth that was never touched by Second Impact.  
  
No red oceans, nothing at all...  
  
And they were falling straight towards a volcano somewhere in what looked to be New Mexico.  
  
"Well this might hurt quite a lot," Rocket guessed as the ground came up towards them very, very quickly.  
  
 _ **FWHYUMP!!**_  
  
A Massive cloud of dust and rocks flew into the air as Unit-05 touched down in the middle of nowhere.   
  
Moments later, a small, grey book fell from the heavens as well, and smacked itself rather firmly atop Unit-05's head before bouncing off and landing in the sand below.

"Ow," Rocket griped. _"What was **that?"**_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of chapter 13. Shinji's apparently run away, Timey Wimey has fulfilled part of his deal with Tabris, Rei and Rocket are lost in the Multiverse, annnnd I finally got to use Escape.
> 
> Plus, a cliffhanger on a Firefly/Serenity reference, what could be better? XD


	14. Blumenkranz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As one door closes, another opens.

Your name is Auska Langley Sohryu, and you are actually sort of freaking out right now.  
  
Rei is gone, and Shinji is missing. You aren't sure what concerns you more. The fact that Misato is focusing on trying to get Rei back, or the fact that she doesn't even believe that he's gone missing. "Maya's with him," She says. Yeah?? Well, where the hell is Maya??  
  
You aren't even sure why you care.  
  
You've not been the nicest person to him or Rei, thinking back, but they....they've put up with your antics.  
  
And now they're both gone.  
  
Section 2 agents laugh at you when you try to tell them that they let Shinji slip away. They don't believe you, and say there's an agent with him.  
How the hell do they not believe you? Where is he then? If they know where he is, why don't they bring him back right now!?  
  
You feel like there's some sort of conspiracy going on.  
  
Milano's been keeping to herself ever since Rei and Rocket disappeared and she won't even speak to you when you try to see if she knows anything about Shinji's plans.  
  
But then again, plans change within half an hour, or less, even...  
  
Who knows what was running through Shinji's brain when he disappeared.

* * *

 

  
Your name is Shinji Ikari, and you are on your way home.  
  
It's just a visit, and you doubt you'll be needed at NERV for the time being. You doubt any Angels will show up after their 'dad' just got popped into a portal and disappeared.  
  
And if they do, it will be some time.  
  
Home. Home is where the heart is, you were told once upon a time.  
  
Being a Pilot has just been a job for you. You've formed attachments, yes, found a sister you never knew you had, which is awesome, but that apartment...Misato, Asuka....Rei.... it's just not home for you.  
  
It's a job, a job that asked you to move across the country, and provided some place for you to stay.  
  
But it's not home.  
  
Home is where you have a window over looking the ocean, hearing the sea breeze and the waves crashing against the shore. Home is where your cousin is constantly treating you alternatively either like an annoying older brother, or a trusted confidant.  
  
Home is where you left the key your mother gave you when she died.  
  
You had left it by accident, before. Your cousin wanted a necklace for her date and she couldn't find the one she wanted, and so you'd given it to her as a good luck charm.  
  
And then the next day you were called to Tokyo-3 before you could retrieve it.

You hadn't thought much about it until the whole "two Mana Kirishimas" thing happened. Two identical versions of reality different only by subtle differences. You wonder if that key necklace is one of them.  
  
Was there a time since passed where that key opened something? Or was there something yet to come that needed that key to be opened, and you never would have thought to use it unless you hadn't been thinking these exact same thoughts?  
  
So you asked for the time off, and took the first train back to home, citing that you just needed a break after the horrors of the last fight. Which is true, for the most part....It _**WILL**_ be good to see them all again. But....  
  
You don't trust the mail, you don't trust it not to be screened. Your mother worked in NERV, and that key opens something. You _**need**_ that key.  
  
Although, there is one person you can trust right now, even if you haven't said the other reason why you're going back.  
  
You look across the seating arrangement towards Maya Ibuki, your official escort for this little endeavor. She smiles and waves.

* * *

 

Your name is Gendo Ikari and you aren't sure what happened.  
  
One minute, you were trying to resurrect Rei Ayanami....and the next you had inadvertently resurrected your wife.  
  
Yui Ikari stands before you, having gone through the standard security procedures that come with resurrection through clone bodies.  
  
Every question answered flawlessly.  
  
Every test passed with ease.  
  
Your wife, somehow, has come back to life.  
  
And the first thing she had to say to you once in the quiet of your office was "It took you long enough."  
  
"I don't understand how," You begin. "How did you come back?"  
  
"All part of the deal," Yui says to you mysteriously. Mystery is something you don't appreciate right now.  
  
"Humor me," You frown.  
  
"Before I left," she says "Left" not "Died" you notice, "I had a dream. In it a boy in a suit offered me a deal, he said that if I chose to die outside of Unit-01, I would be reborn again in the future."  
  
"A boy?" Not a girl. Hmm.... "Was his name Tabris?"

"No, but that is what he called me." You feel your heart stop for but a moment. "He said that in a previous life, I had made another deal with him. My memories of that life in exchange for the happiness of the ones I loved the most."  
  
Tabris was the one that Bardiel had told Rei had made a deal to...do something. And Tabris....had become Yui? Somehow? Was that even possible...?  
  
Well, of course it was possible. Mana had admitted that she had become aware of an Angel inside her head while growing up. Of course it was entirely possible that an Angel could become  
  
"What....what was this new deal, exactly?" What did you gain, Yui?  
  
"It was mainly an extension on the one the older me made," Yui smiled faintly, "to see my Shinji-kun happy." She then looks you in the eye and asks, "So! When can I see him?"

* * *

 

Your name is Rei Ayanami, and you have no clue what the hell is going on anymore.  
  
Two days after crash landing in the middle of a desert, you were discovered by a caravan of local mappers, just some seemingly normal people who were trying to verify the existence of the volcano that you had landed at....  
  
You learned that you had crashed several centuries into the past, and that they viewed you and Rocket as messengers from Heaven for all of the advanced technology that the Eva contained.  
  
And when one of them just up and vanished into that book that hit Unit-05 on the head, they looked to you for an explanation.  
  
You had none, so Rocket covered.  
  
_"He will return if you can get us to the nearest town!"_  
  
Well, at least you got a free "ride" to the nearest town.... If only you hadn't been set upon by a swarm of Dragons a day later.  
  
Freaking Dragons, using that same language that A.D.A.M. had used.  
  
And then one of them roared something that totally split time into two pieces, and Unit-05 was falling through the void of space and time yet again.  
  
At least the next world you landed in was a familiar one, a Post-Apocalypse Tokyo-3, even _**IF**_ it was being best upon by zombies instead of angels.

* * *

 

  
Your name is Shinji Ikari, and your cousin's smiling face and crushing hug just nearly makes up for everything.  
  
"Hey, Kara," you smile even though the familiar face of your cousin now reminds you of your missing sister.  
  
"When we heard about the last few fights, we've been so worried..." Kara says into your shoulder. "We're just so glad you're okay..."  
  
As you hug tighter, you glance out the corner of your eye, and you see Maya smiling sadly from a few yards back. You wonder if she has any family she hasn't seen in a long time? You'll have to ask about that on the way back.  
  
"So, how did your date go?" You try to change the subject and Kara laughs hollowly.  
  
"He never showed, the coward!" And then she adds, "He totally skipped town too! I haven't seen that stupid silver hair of his since you left!"  
Figures. You roll your eyes and pat your cousin's back. "Yeah, well, Ryouma just doesn't know what he's missing." Any guy would be lucky to date her, and any guy stupid enough to skip town just....well.... You actually have a slight thought with regards to that, but you're not going to bring that up with her. "Hey, so what's for dinner?"  
  
Kara laughs, and sniffs slightly, "Mom's fixing pizza."  
  
"Oooh," You smile. "Is there room for a friend of mine?"  
  
"Who?" Kara asks.

"Well, a co-worker who came with me. I could only get time off to come down here if I had an armed escort," You roll your eyes. "Soooo.... I've got a babysitter, but she's a friend. We've all been through a lot the last few weeks."  
  
You motion for Maya to come over, and you tell her that pizza is the dinner of choice for today.  
  
"Is she your girlfriend?" Kara asks with a slight elbow to your ribs. (Ow.)  
  
"No way!" You shake your head. "She's already got a girlfriend, who is also our doctor. There's no way I'm risking having a needle full of crazy being jabbed up my-" Your cousin breaks down into laughter before you can finish your rant. "Well, you know."  
  
"Yes, I know _exaaactly_ what you mean," And she continues to laugh.  
  
Well, as long as you can keep making Kara laugh, the world can't be heading to that bad of an end.

* * *

 

Pizza for dinner- cake for dessert!  
  
Your name is Maya Ibuki, and Shinji's aunt sure knows how to make a dinner. You can see where Shinji learned to cook from, if Misato's reports aren't over exaggerated. (And honestly, you're suspecting Shinji's skills are being UNDER exaggerated.)  
  
But WOW. That chocolate, chippy, wavy, delicious cake.  
  
It's as you're asking her for the reciepe that you get a faint tingle at the back of your spine.  
  
And then the house shakes like something flew over head.  
  
Shinji and his cousin were elsewhere, potentially outside, as Shinji then yells- "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?!"  
  
Meaning an Angel. Probably one of the weirdest looking Angels yet.  
  
Grrreeeaaat.  
  
Shinji's aunt politely offers to email you the recipe for the cake, and you quickly write down your email address on a post-it note.

* * *

 

Your name is Asuka Langley Sohryu, and you are currently being launched to the surface of the city for yet another battle after the last.  
  
You seriously hope this "rapidly approaching mass" that the MAGI haven't even detected an A.T. field off of yet, is going to be one of the weakest angels yet.  
  
Maybe it's not even going to fight? Maybe it'll offer up that white flag and surrender, ending the war entirely?  
  
You wish. You really, really, wish that's the case.

You wish....you want....you just can't believe that Shinji would run away and leave you alone.   
  
Fine. You'll kill this Angel. You'll kill every one after that. You'll kill every Angel that doesn't bow to your superior might and you will become...!  
  
...What will you become?  
  


* * *

 

As you head out the door, Kana throws something at you with a "Catch!"  
  
You catch it, and smile at your cousin.  
  
"Good luck!" She says with a grin.  
  
And so you put on that key necklace once more.

* * *

 

Your name....

* * *

 

  
  
Your name is [ **BALTHAZAR]** , and you are one of three personalities governing the **[MAGI System (O.S. Ver 4.13.61.2]** that is focusing on task **[PRIORITY ONE]** :  
  
Figuring out just what kind of signals the scanners are feeding you.  
  
The incoming **[Enemy ID: ?UNKNOWN?]** is **[Dragonoid]** in shape, and **[Pink]** according to visual identification. Nothing like the **[Enemy ID: Angels]** before, however most **[Enemy ID: Angels]** did not share much similarities or common **[Data]** beyond the **[A.T. Field]** and their **[Code Blue D.N.A. Signatures]**.  
  
 **[Enemy ID: ?UNKNOWN?]** Wavelength currently and tentatively earmarked as **[Tapioka]** , noted as meaning **["WTF is This thing?"]** in NERV Staff notation.  
  
The **[Enemy ID: ?UNKNOWN?]** approaches Tokyo-3 at **[Mach Speed: ERROR]**.  
  
 **[Error]**?  
  
The Speed Scanners are Erroring?

* * *

 

Your Name is....Asuka? Your....you....Your job is to Pilot....You are the best Pilot there is You're going to kill the angels and you're going to....

* * *

 

This makes no sense and it sends your two fellow A.I. into an argument with each other about whose fault it is that the scanners are broken.  
  
 **[Evangelion Unit-02]** moves to intercept the **[Enemy ID: ?UNKNOWN?]** with an A.T. field in its path. Internal Note: **[Evangelion Unit-02]** 's **[Psychograph]** is fluctuating. No comment from NERV Staff.  
  
 **[Enemy ID: ?UNKNOWN?]** hits it at full speed and a **[Sonic Boom]** occurs as its acceleration stops it flat.  
  
No **[A.T. Field]** negation. Curious.  
  
What is more curious is the spike of data received as it gets back to its feet nigh instantaneously.  
  
You file a request to file **[Enemy ID: ?UNKNOWN?]** 's Wavelength as _**[Green]**_.  
  
Your fellow MAGI rebuke your request firmly, but you make note to file the request again at a later date.

* * *

 

Your name is ~~**(_)|*,**~~ _)-(05_ ** _ ~~y3~~_ ~~|_@ /\/4|_~~ _4| <(_)$4_** and this "Angel" is pathetic.

* * *

 

Your name is Groot, and your pilot merely [hums](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdAoYar8Y0c) as she observes the creature.  
  
The pink-skinned, razor clawed, no-eyed thing climbs to its feet.

It doesn't smell like an angel. Doesn't look like one either. A nagging thought in your head wants to call it Arcadia, if only to give it a name.  
  
The thing stares at you without eyes, and then it just sort of turns its head to the side with a crack.  
  
Your pilot glares at it and you can feel something inside your Core unlock thanks to that consumed organ....and then...  
  
Asuka sings.  
  
 ** __Ich möchte stärker werden, weil unsere Welt sehr grausam ist__**  
  
Not intentionally aloud, you don't think, but it comes out of the speakers regardless as you begin walking towards the creature.  
  
 _ **_Es ist ratsam, welke Blumen zu entfernen_**_  
  
Electricity begins arcing across your fingers as you approach the demon...  
  
Yes, a Demon is exactly what this thing is.

 ** __Du fragst mich, ob ich mit dir komm / Du flüsterst mir in mein Ohr__**  
  
A.T. fields begin forming, charged by that electricity as your pilot wills weapons into existence.  
  
The fields are blood red.  
  
 _ **_Du fragst mich, ob ich deine Hand nehm / Ich hab keinen Grund, dich abzulehnen_**_  
  
The Demon gathers up some sort of energy attack in its mouth and blasts off a shot that is detonated in mid-air by a single jolt of electricity arcing out from your core, sending smoke everywhere.  
  
 ** __Du fragst mich, ob ich mit dir komm / Du flüsterst mir in mein Ohr__**  
  
Your newly formed weapons, some matching set of....saw-blade swords... solidify into pure matter, no-longer made out of A.T. fields.  
  
The Demon's pale skin pales slightly more.  
  
 _ **_Du fragst mich, ob ich deine Hand nehm (Du flüsterst mir)_**_  
  
Asuka smirks, and shifts that song of her soul into something different as she actually begins to sing the song that had already been playing.  
  
 ** __"Ja, ich bin viel stärker, als ich je gedacht hab"__**

You leap into a blur of motion, blades flying and whirling so fast that after-images appear, giving your form the impression of having four arms as you deal death down upon the Angel.  
  
 _ **_"Fliege höher! Laufe viel schneller! Vergiss die Wahrheit nicht!"_**_  
  
Vaguely, you hear a complaint of synchronization hitting two-hundred percent as the Demon throws up some damage-absorbing mockery of an A.T. field into your path.  
  
 ** __"Ja, ich bin viel stärker, als ich je gedacht hab"__**  
  
Your pilot ignores it, continuing to sing as your strange weapons shift into chain-saws, ripping through those mockeries of A.T. fields and slashing deep into the Demon's body, a bright, multicolored blood flies in all directions.  
  
 _ **_"Ich entferne welke Blumen / Wieso siehst du so traurig aus?"_**_  


* * *

 

Through the recently torn dimensional rift, the song being sung floats through the void between worlds. A Tremor of pure terror from the demon follows suit.

* * *

 

Atop Unit-05's shoulders, Rei frowned as the wind blew her hair to the side.  
  
"...That feeling..." She muttered. "What is it?"  
  
_"Can't tell,"_ Rocket grumbled. _"But it feels like Asuka just went off the deep end."_  
  
"You think it's them?"_ Rei asked.  
  
_"Who else do we know that ate a whole Angel?"_ Rocket asked.  
  
"...Fair point," Rei stared up at the storm clouds heading towards their current location.

* * *

 ** __Diese Welt ist grausam / Es ist traurig aber wahr__**  
  
The song echoed loudly, seemingly from reality itself as Unit-02's eyes shifted from green to a blinding golden light. A.T. Fields were flickering into existence around the head in a circle, almost like a halo...  
  
 _ **_Diese Welt ist seltsam / Es ist fraglich aber wahr_**_  
  
Even far away, heading into Tokyo-3 as Shinji and Maya were, they could sense the sheer energy rippling off of Unit-02 as the Evangelion started to become something....more.  
  
"Asuka," Shinji's hands pressed up against the train-car's windows. "Don't do something stupid...!"  
  
 _ **_"Ist der Blumengarten... echt oder falsch?"_**_  
  
Asuka dismissed the twin weapons, shifting them instead into a single weapon without even-reconverting them into A.T. fields, simply willing them to combine and change into something that only high ranking NERV staff recognized.  
  
"Is that an Impact lance!?" Yui Ikari stared on in surprise as she watched the live feed from Gendo's office.  
  
 ** __"Ich möchte stärker werden, / weil unsere Welt sehr grausam ist"__**  
  
Unit-02 hefted the lance over the fallen, bloodied, and mutilated Demon, pausing almost as if weighing the weapon merely for the sake of it.  
  
 _ **_"Es ist ratsam, welke Blumen zu entfernen"_**_  
  
The Demon seemed terrified, trying to shield its chest as if protecting something important.  
  
Asuka decided that was where she would aim.

 ** __"Ja, ich bin viel stärker, als ich je gedacht hab"__**  
  
The Impact Lance glowed with that golden light as the A.T. field ring condensed into a pure Halo of Energy...  
  
 _ **_"Fliege höher! Laufe viel schneller! Vergiss die Wahrheit nicht!"_**_  
  
"CODE BLUE DETECTED!" A technician cried out. "IT'S...! It's..."  
  
 ** __"Ja, ich bin viel stärker, als ich je gedacht hab"__**  
  
Unit-02's whole armor color scheme flickered- going from Crimson into a brilliant gold-and-white design that made the entire pattern of armor seemingly shift into something more regal looking...  
  
 _ **_"Ich entferne welke Blumen"_**_  
  
"Unit-02's Entry Plug!?" Misato gasped as she read the readings for herself.  
  
 ** __"Wieso siehst du so traurig aus?"__**  
  
Unit-02's foot shifted slightly, and then they lunged.

 _ **_"Was willst du von mir?"_**_  
  
The Demon was impaled in that one spot.  
  
 ** __"Ich mag wollen oder nicht, ich muss den Feind verfolgen"__**  
  
It was pierced- and immediately the whole body structure collapsed into multicolored cubes of gelatinous material, exploding outwards in all directions before shattering into more cubes that continued to break down into non-existence.  
  
 _ **_"Ich bin nicht frei von dieser Welt"_**_  
  
Unit-02 let go of the Impact Lance, leaving it wedged firmly into the city streets atop what appeared to be a burnt in hour-glass shape on the ground.  
  
 _ **_"Was willst du von mir?"_**_  
  
The Evangelion stood upright for a moment, and inside the Entry Plug, Asuka breathed shakily as she tried to force that entire well of power that had just been uncapped back into its bottle.  
  
 ** __"Ich mag wollen oder nicht, ich muss den Feind verfolgen"__**  
  
But all she could manage was to shift the appearance back to Unit-02's normal crimson look.

 _ **_"Ich bin nicht frei von dieser Welt"_**_  
  
It was too late. That entire process had made the Pilot and her Evangelion into something completely new.  
  
 ** __"Egal wie hart du auch bist"__**  
  
In the void- a multicolored labyrinth of planets, dimensions, and timelines- that song was broadcast out to all points of time and all worlds.  
  
 ** __"Fliege höher! Laufe viel schneller!"__**  
  
A certain time demon observed the song, musing briefly on its significance, not even knowing that another version of himself would be composing that same song alongside his partner-in-crime-and-other-things for their triumphant moment against a woman who had no idea what was coming.  
  
 _ **_"Du bist sehr stark"_**_  
  
In the void, an orb of energy, part of A.D.A.M.'s remains, flared with power, taking hold of that song, and using it as a lifeline to draw itself back across the void to its point of origin.  
  
 ** __"Du bindest einen Blumenkranz / Wieso siehst du so traurig aus?"__**  
  
Unit-02 fell to its knees as everything was powered down, but even inside the Entry plug, panting from the exertion of capping all that energy, Asuka knew it wasn't going to do any good to anyone.  
  
"Crap," She huffed. "Crap in a hat."  
  
"I am Groot," Groot agreed. That was definitely not good at all.

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. There wasn't originally going to be any fight in this episode. But then some emotional stuff hit the fan and I wasn't in the writing mood for a long while. Came up with this scene to cap off the chapter as a way to blow of steam....
> 
> Despite being a sort of "Heroic reprise" of Blumenkranz, compared to other times I've used it, this song still is not good news for anyone whenever it plays. Unit-02 went full on Angel in the wake of Asuka thinking that both of her fellow Pilots had left her, and feeling like nobody was taking her seriously... in the long run this has really been coming, but it wasn't meant to be in this chapter, originally. But as it stands, we're nearing the end of this story, I think. I don't see it lasting more than maybe... three-to-six chapters? Rough estimate. Subject to Change.


	15. THREE YEARS LATER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rei lands in a familiar world, yet different from what she knows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made a decision. This story is now officially part of XWAU02's verse....  
> You have been warned. :P

Freaking.  
  
 **EMOTICON.**  
  
 _ **TOWERS!!!**_  
  
_"TAKE THIS!!!"_ Unit-05's drill revs up, and plows into the grinning maw of the giant rock tower that's floating in front of you.  
  
The giant Tower whines out in protest as the improved Giga Drill breaks straight through the glitch-space front, and plows out the back.  
  
It collapses into the standard explosion of gelatin cubes, and Unit-05 turns its attention towards the remaining Tower.  
  
The green field of space on its front flickers as the Emoticon displayed in red shifts into a terrified expression- and then the Tower disappears in a flicker of teleportation similar to the effect of the last one dissolving away, but clearly different.  
  
The population of the town of Mistral cheers behind the robot, and inside the entry plug, a now Sixteen years-old Rei Ayanami breathes out a few bubbles into the LCL. "I hate these freaking Emojis."  
  
"Agreed one hundred and fourteen percent on that one, Rei," Rocket agrees, and they shift the Entry Plug and the Eva's neck so that Rei can exit and climb out onto the Eva's left shoulder.  
  
The LCL drains off of the stretched, patched, and externally-armored green Plug Suit, all highlighting the fact that Rei herself had seen just as many battles outside of the Evangelion as the Giant robot's own armor showed the scars of.  
  
Rei stretches out for a few moments, taking in the tropical air before sitting down beneath the shade of the massive rocket silo, which now contained a whole lot more than rockets since the time that firing mechanisms had jammed up and were practically useless for even firing rockets at all. Food, clothes, souvenirs.... a lot of stuff built up over three years of wandering the cosmos.  
  
It was all stuff that Rei firmly intended to take back home once home was found.  
  
"So...." Rei breathed out. "Any further song echos?"  
  
_"Nah,"_ Rocket replied. _"Whatever we heard last year hasn't repeated itself again recently. Can't trace it back without more data to work with."  
  
Rei sighed. "Well, that's just great." She stood up and went to walk towards the ladder that they'd had installed on the back of the Eva's spine in some mirror version of their home world. "Radio me if we pick something up. I'm going to go into town and see if everyone's alright."  
  
_"Got it."_ Rocket replied with a tone that implied nodding, even though the four-legged, lightning winged Evangelion itself remained motionless.

* * *

The town of Mistral was rural, yet magical and technological all at the same time.  
  
Within the last few years, some magical event had happened causing people from another world to be transplanted to this world, and from there, using future knowledge, they began developing the world while avoiding all the nasty 'running through the dark' parts of an industrial revolution.  
  
This was the fifth such world like that Rei Ayanami had run into.  
  
It was almost like the multiverse was trying to stick them in specific places for specific periods of time.  
  
Either that, or someone was stacking the deck heavily against either of them getting home again.  
  
"Three years, fifteen super computers, and still no way to call home," Rei muttered as she took a step into the town's open-air bar, where her current ticket to the next world sat waiting... A girl in her early twenties, orange-blond hair and piercing blue eyes. "Yo, Philia-san!" Rei waved in greeting.  
  
"Ah, Ayanami," The woman spins around on her seat and smirks. "Come to milk the hero's tab for all it's worth before you move on to the next world?"  
  
"Nooo way," Rei shook her head as she took a seat next to Philia. "I don't drink."  
  
"Who said anything about drinking?" Philia asked. "You've gotta fill up before diving head long into a Dark Anchor. Who knows when you'll eat next."  
  
"True," Rei mused on the thought for a moment. "Alright, fine. I'll have the cheese sticks."

"Cheese sticks!" Philia laughed for a moment. "The least expensive item on the menu!"  
  
"Also the only thing that doesn't feel like it'll be coming up inside the entry plug once I'm on the other side of wherever I end up," Rei countered.  
  
"At least have some fish to go with it," Philia offered instead.  
  
"If they're in stick form, then sure, otherwise, nah," Rei cracked a grin.  
  
"Naturally," Philia rolled her eyes. "You are one strange girl, Ayanami."  
  
"I'm just as lost in this world as you are," Rei shrugged.  
  
"Yeah, well, we've been stationary for most of our time here..." Philia's mouth flattened into a line for a moment, even as her hand went down to her stomach. "It gives one a bit of clarity."

* * *

"Clarity, huh?" Rei mused as Unit-05 remained underwater, just out of sight of the Dolmen that was powering up on a very small island just off the coast of Khenarthii's Roost.  
  
"What was that?" Rocket asked even as the Worm Cultists moved into place, dragging their blood sacrifice behind them like the desperate fools they were. Not even one of the nine races of civilization like they'd used in years past, just a random Harpy that struggled harder than the idiots were prepared for.  
  
It would be anti-climatic if they failed to activate the Dolmen at this point.  
  
"Just something Philia said to me earlier," Rei mused. "Will we ever settle down again? I wanna know if I'll ever have kids."  
  
"Kids?!" Rocket asked in surprise. "Where the hell did that come from? Wait- no, don't answer that. I don't want to know."  
  
"Remember when I helped that other version of Asuka give birth?" Rei asked. "And Philia-san... It just... They remained in place and we're just out here wandering the stars..."  
  
The Harpy was thrown into the center of the Dolmen, and the Worm Cultists began casting their spell.  
  
"Listen, Rei, I dunno if..." Rocket's sentence stopped as Rei continued on.

"And I don't even care if I even really have kids or not," Rei paused for a second as the Dolmen's magic began to pulse and flare up... "I just want to be there for someone. To see them grow up. Even if I'm just the weird aunt who tells bad jokes, I just-" Whatever Rei said next was drowned out as a giant metal ring materialized in the sky above them with a loud, droning _**BRRRRUUUOOOOOOMMM!!!!**_  
  
The Harpy was incinerated as giant metal hooks fell from the Dark Anchor, locking it in place.  
  
"Go time," Rocket said as he brought them out of cover from beneath the water.  
  
"Yeah," Rei steeled herself for battle.  
  
The Dark Anchor was about as tall as the Evangelion itself, just perfect for their plan.  
  
Unit-05 walked towards the Anchor and, much to the terror of the Cultists, grabbed the giant metal ring and began pulling it down out of it's strange, gravity-defying orbit.  
  
For the last time in this world, Rei used Unit-05's eyes to look back to shore, looking over her friends, the ones who had brought her this far, for the final time.  
  
The dual-wield Swordsman in Black, Kirito, and the Werewolf Girl, Silica. The Nordic Knight, Asuna, and the Bosmer Swordsinger, Yuuki. So many people... even if they were just people from town who wanted to see them off...  
  
With a faint thought, Rei wondered if she would ever see any of them again.  
  
The Dark Anchor hit a certain angle, and the Cultists began to be pulled into its vortex, the signal for the warriors there to get out of the way.  
  
The vortex began to destabilize as they pulled the Anchor lower and lower...

And then the Entire Evangelion transformed into a burst of energy and shot through the vortex of the Dark Anchor mere moments before the entire structure spun out of control and crashed into the small island the Dolmen had been built on.  
  
And then it detonated- vaporizing not only the Dolmen's base structure, but the rest of that very tiny island as well.  
  
And so history recorded the final death blow to the Sea Viper Dolmen.

* * *

 

There's the standard [whirling vortex of space and time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQe1QxHZuWg) shifting rapidly even through closed eyes- the strange sensation of being turned inside out and upside down and then--  
  
 ** _SCHLORP_ \---THUD.**  
  
\--Ground.  
  
Solid Ground.  
  
Inside the entry plug, Rei breathed out slowly as she waited for her insides to finish settling from the rapid churning that came from what had recently become the standard for dimensional travel between worlds.  
  
And then the external microphones picked up voices.  
  
"What the hell is that!?" A woman.  
  
"It emerged from the Breakdramon Rift??" A man.  
  
Rocket groaned, "Oh great... An Audience."  
  
Rei cracked an eye open, and looked out into the city streets before Unit-05's eyes.  
  
It wasn't much.  
  
The whole localized area looked like it had seen a massive battle in recent days, recent enough for it to all be cordoned off with caution tape and orange horse barriers and lots of cute little orange cones...  
  
And a lot of science-y looking equipment too. Plus the scientists. And....a girl who was wearing a lot of yellow and had very green hair.

  
"OI!" She was even pointing a gun at the Evangelion's head. "IF YOU'RE FRIENDLY, SPEAK NOW, OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE!"  
  
"Well, this is new," Rocket remarked. "Not the most hostile intro we've had, though. Remember the other you who's motto was 'shoot first, fill the questions full of holes later'?"  
  
"Eyuuup. That me was down right insane." Rei nodded, then thumbed the external speakers, _"Alright! Hold your fire! I'm coming out!"_  
  
And so they went through the arduous process of draining the LCL enough to open the Entry Plug, allowing Rei to climb out onto Unit-05's right shoulder, hands in the air (It couldn't hurt).  
  
The green haired girl eyed Rei with blue eyes, and then asked, "Name, occupation, and reason for being here?"  
  
"Rei Ayanami, Pilot, and don't got one," Rei shrugged, hands still in the air. "You?"  
  
"Sally Sparrow, Digital World Immigration, the girl who's trying to figure out why this rift is spitting out giant robots like cheap cigars," 'Sally' snarks, lowering the gun slightly.  
  
"Sparrow, huh," Rei blinked. It couldn't be... "Say, that wouldn't happen to be short for Sparrowmon, would it?"

The girl narrows her eyes, "How do you know that?" Was it possible?  
  
"I wanna talk with your leader, Shoutmon if it's possible," Rei smirked. Going by how this 'Sally Sparrow' balked at that name drop, it was most definitely possible.  
  
Rocket groaned internally, "Grreeeaaat, three years of aimless wandering, and we finally wind up in her stupid Digi-land Anime."

* * *

 

Wristers- Sally Sparrow was using a WRISTER! An actual, screen accurate, red with white paint, _**WRISTER!!**_  
  
"Yo, Taiki," Sally began, "is Sylen with you?"  
  
_"Yeah, I'm here. Why?"_ came a familiar voice that nearly made Rei Squeal in delight.  
  
"We've got a wiry girl with a majorly Xrossed-Up Centarumon asking to meet our leader by name." She grumbled. "Anyways, she's refusing to speak to me with anything else, so if you could meet us downtown where Breakdramon came through at, that'd be great. A.S.A.P. would be appreciated."  
  
_"Eh? What's someone doing down there?"_  
  
Rei couldn't contain her energy, she hopped over towards a console with an energy readout, and peered at the screen. "Xros Heart United Army"? Rei frowned. That wasn't a familiar name. That wasn't a familiar name at all.  
  
The Scientist at the console sent a wary glance at her, and Rei backed away in appology.  
  
"The squints are saying something about the barrier here being weaker than everywhere else. Probably why Breakdramon came out so far away from where he left at..."  
  
Rei then tripped on a rock an tumbled backwards for a moment before catching herself on a trash can. "Whoops."

"Sorry," Sally apologized, "I gotta go. This girl's insane, I tell you..." She hung up and scowled at Rei. "Do you mind standing still for a few moments? Or are you always this energetic?"  
  
"Ehehe..." Rei scratched at the back of her head. "Sorry, It's--"  
  
And then there was a hiss of static followed by a flash of red and white light- and then a sixteen-year-old boy was standing there- red hair and blue eyes and a yellow scarf that flowed in an unseen wind...  
  
"What the hell?" He stares up at Unit-05, speaking with the same voice as heard over the Wrister "Is that Unit-05!?"  
  
_"Huh, first time someone's actually recognized me,"_ Rocket laughed. _"Most people call me Rocket, though."_  
  
"Riiiight," the guy starts looking around, almost as if expecting something.  
  
Rei smirks as she sees an opportunity, and she takes it. "Heee~eey!" She sings at him.  
  
He flinches, and mutters under his breath, "Damn it." Then, he turns around and plasters on a smile. "Soo.... Ayanami, Rei. What Denizen thought it a great idea to throw our two worlds together?"  
  
Rei smirks, "Dunno, but if I meet them, I wanna punch 'em in the nose for the last three years."  
  
"Three years?" He frowns. "Okay, you've completely lost me."

"So have you, Kingy," Rei quips back. "Last I checked, Digimon didn't have human forms."  
  
He glances at Sally, who just shrugs and says, "She's your problem now, Sylen," before walking off.

* * *

Several hours later of explaining roughly Thirteen chapters worth of story content, you've found yourself in some fancy, high-end cafeteria across from an alternate version of one of your favorite TV characters.  
  
"So lemme summarize this, just for clarity," King "Sylen" Shoutmon, as you've come to know him, says with a dramatic pause, "you actually FOUGHT Adam, King Papa Daddy of all angels?" You nod. "You then grabbed him in a choke hold so Leliel could throw him- and accidentally you- into the raw fabric of space and time?" You nod again. "And then you spent the next three years wandering the cosmos trying to find a way back home without end?"  
  
"Yuup," You nod.  
  
"And...before all of this happened. You routinely fought Angels with the power of music?" He asks.  
  
"Mostly songs off of Shinji's Walkman," You clarify. "I know, it's weird. Most versions of NERV I've run into didn't even have Angels to fight, but even they thought it was-"  
  
"No no no!" He waves his hand to stop you. "Don't _**ever**_ think that! Music is one of _**THE**_ most awesome things you can fight with."  
  
"And why's that?" You ask.  
  
"Ayanami-san," He puts his hands into a pyramid, and rests his jaw on it, "about half of Xros Heart's standing army last year had some form of musical qualification. We literally sang a song of triumph while avenging a fallen ally, and then did a reprise of that exact same song while turning a Body-Jacking-Shadow, Jerk-of-a-Knight into the same freaking sun that is presently floating above us and giving this very planet LIGHT." You blink at him as he sighs, realizing that he's completely lost you. "Alright, alright, let's try this again...context is important after all."  
  
And so you proceed to listen to about fifty-six chapters of a series of events so random that makes you realize that for all your time travel issues... You've had a relatively mundane life without a series of constantly-repeating stable time loops.

* * *

 

After tormenting a destruction-bent lunatic with a song about eating turnips, you're offered a warm bed for as long as necessary while King Sylen and a dedicated team of researchers work on figuring out a targeted spell that will directly send you home.  
  
A straight path home. Rocket can hardly believe it when you tell him. No triangulating song echoes, no more aimless wandering.  
  
Just....one spell and BAM. Your three year journey will be over.  
  
You're offered an open bed in the Amano's apartment. Kotone's room, specifically, while she's in the Digital World for some reason or another.  
  
You accept that offer for the time being, and say that you're willing to take the sofa afterwards. Once that's settled and done, you take a shower before dinner comes around. Best to get all that built up LCL off. You've already got the water running, and slowly building up to a nice temperature when you take a glance in the bathroom mirror at the tattoos on your bare skin.  
  
So many fond memories have built up over the last three years, but only the ones that left a heavy and firm mark in your memories, you do have limited space for imagery, after all, and while your front side is only half of what you've taken up so far, there's one spot near your heart that you've intentionally been leaving blank.  
  
Three years before you finally found a world close enough to the Digimon Anime you wanted. Sure, there had been some different ones that you'd run into a few times- like that one time Shinjuuku was eaten by a giant red blob of jello!- but none of them were with THIS Team.  
  
And while they weren't the characters you were used to, they were definitely the same people, deep down. And even though there were new people who you'd never even heard of before, that just meant there were more people to leave an even bigger impression!  
  
You close your eyes, and in that open circle, you imagine the team logo just where it should be.

There's a warm heat in that shape, like your skin had just been touched with a warm, but not completely molten, branding iron, and when you open your eyes, the reflection in the mirror shows a new addition to your tattoo collection- the Xros Heart logo, right over your heart where it belongs, made not with ink and an injector needle, but instead by directly shifting the color-hue of your skin from its usual pale color into a bright red shade matching your eyes.  
  
If it works out and you're able to be sent home, then it was worth saving this world for last.

* * *

You proceed to sleep through both that night and the night after, and don't wake up until morning of your second day in this timeline.  
  
Jet Lag is a real pain, especially when it's inter-dimensional jet lag.  
  
The rest of your week is spent in relaxation, although you're starting to get the feeling that this is your calm before the storm.

* * *

 

Kaiyumi Kudo, as it turns out, is the one who requested looking at your Plug Suit's technology while you weren't using it. And she's the youngest scientist you've ever laid your eyes on.  
  
While you're waiting at the Kudo residence (More like MANSION! How much money does having a writer for a mom and an acclaimed restaurant owner for a dad even get you?) for Kaiyumi to finish the examination, you try your best to explain the technology to the apparent pre-teen girl examining the camouflage system.  
  
You don't do a very good job, but it gets enough of the details through relativly intact.  
  
"This is amazing..." She looked up and smiled with blue eyes that remind you of Asuka to a degree. She probably could pass as Asuka's younger sister if Asuka had brown hair, you muse. She's definitely pretty smart. "The micro-fiber weave isn't like anything I've ever seen before. All of this metal even...." She pats a piece of armor you picked up from an alternate version of your world. "It's woven out of these threads, but everything's powered by the same core line....! Plus the resizing abilities...! It's not even made out of data like stuff like this usually is! I mean, I get that since you came from a whole other timeline it's got it's own quirky atomic designs, but still, usually stuff in this dimension at least change structure to not be incompatible to that mechanic and seeing something resist that...!"  
  
If it were a completely different world, you've got no doubt that this kid would fit right into place in NERV's science division.  
  
"It's all beyond me," You shrug. "I'm just the pilot."  
  
"And half of the metal wasn't even part of the original suit?" She asks, and you nod in reconfirmation. "Dang, That's really impressive..." She then consults her brown and purple Fusion Load...er.... "Xros" Loader. You're still trying to get used to the terminology differences. "There are a lot of stray energy emissions on this too, like some kind of extra energy is reinforcing the materials?"  
  
"Probably one of the health enchants I had put on it in one of the last worlds using magic," You offer and explanation.

"Wheew....I wonder if I could backwards engineer something like that?" She takes out a notebook and scribbles a few notes into some blank space.  
  
You can't help but to look at the displayed notes as she's writing. That is a LOT of math for someone so young. But then again, you never saw her in your Anime either, and from what Sylen told you, she's very much one of the team's top researchers.  
  
Yeah, she'd definitely be at home at a lab back at NERV....hell, she'd probably take over an entire department.

* * *

 

Half a week after your arrival in this timeline, Kotone returns from the Digital World (apparently in the same solar system as this earth!) and takes you out to an early morning breakfast.  
  
"So! How are you liking our little slice of chaos?" the blond haired, blue eyed girl asks with some kind of faint echo to her voice. You're told that's natural, given that she has two different souls inside the same body (Nobody explained the specifics of how that worked, only citing that it was discovered in Dust Zone. Now you're really itching for a play by play of everything that went down), but it's still odd.  
  
"It's....interesting," You smile. "There's been a lot thats happened behind the scenes. Everyone's rushing this way and that... Reminds me of home, really."  
  
"Yeah we're a bit....chaotic," and this time the echo is missing. "I bet you're anxious to get home to your family, yeah?"  
  
"Yeah....I left in a hurry." You reply. "I just hope I can get back sooner for them than three years."  
  
"You're close to our ages now," Kotone says, still without the echo. "You were about...thirteen then?"  
  
"Yeah," you nod. "Actually, I'll probably be right up with my brother and Asuka if I can get back within a few months."  
  
"Heh," and there's an echo again. "That sounds like how when we all compared notes after we killed DarkKnightmon." You must visibly appear confused, because she clarifies, "We all realized that after all the time travel, we'd all ended up with our sixteenth birthday's all on the same day."  
  
"Oh wow," you blink. "That's amazing!"  
  
"Yeah," And again the echo is gone. You wonder if she's even aware that her voice is shifting like that? Kotone reaches for her drink.  
  
"So, um, changing subjects," You change subjects with all the subtlty of a punch to the gut. "From what I understand, you were over in the Digital world because you caught someone causing trouble over here?"  
  
"Yeah," she nodded, and takes a sip.  
  
"So, ah, sorry if this is prying, but do you mind if I ask why you were over there so long?"  
  
"..." Kotone weighs something in her head for a moment before saying, "Promise not to tell anyone about this? Especially my brother."  
  
"I promise," you raise your left hand, and put your right hand...well, not quite over your heart, but over the tattoo instead. Close enough, you figure. "I'm leaving in a while anyways so it's not like I'd be causing that much damage to the timeline by knowing."  
  
"Well, there's this political thing in Hong Kong in...like...a week and a half?" Kotone shrugs a bit, "Anyways, a lot of our close friends from Xros Heart are going there, and Nene, my sister, has an announcement for just us.... I'm going to be an _Aunt_."  
  
"Wow! Congrats! That's awesome." You smile.

"Yeah, it's great, but man is my sis scared a bit," Kotone pauses. "She has Echidna's powers, and Kiriha has Typheus's, so any kid they have is either going to be plain normal or freakishly super powered beyond even us...And here I am just going to be the aunt who doesn't know what to do just as much as the next person."  
  
"Hah," You smile faintly as you repeat what you said to Rocket in the last world. "I know that feeling. Sometimes I think I'd be better suited as the weird aunt who tells bad jokes than as a mother."  
  
"Bad jokes?" Kotone asked.  
  
"Well," you smirk, "if I started _Joking_ right now, you'd be _Choking_ in your seat,"  
  
(Nearby, a guy in an out of season Santa Costume yelps out at an ice cold wind.)  
  
Kotone gives you a weird look before saying, "Okay yeah that's actually pretty bad."  
  
"Tell me about it," you sigh in defeat. "Three years and my humor levels have went from zero-understanding of metaphors to bad jokes that barely make sense."  
  
"Don't worry about it, that just makes you unique," Kotone smiles.

* * *

 

It was now about six days after Rei's arrival in this timeline, and during dinner that night with the Amano family, a call came in over a generic cell phone of all things.  
  
"Yo! ... Hey, Sylen. What's up?" Yuu answered. "Oh...yeah, she's right here." And then he handed Rei the phone.  
  
"Yeah?" For a few moments, she sat there in silence. And then her eyes started to tear up. "T...Thank you." She smiled. "Yes! Thank you! Thank you so much! I'll see you tomorrow!"  
  
And once she hung up, Rei Ayanami smiled brightly, "They're sending us home tomorrow."

* * *

The next day, Rei was waiting with Rocket at the rift that they had arrived in.  
  
_"He's late,"_ Rocket grumbled. _"Date and time he specified and he's Late!!"_  
  
"I'm sure there's a reason why!" Rei frowned. Here she was all dressed up with nowhere to go. Ironic, really.  
  
_"I know, but...it's the waiting that's the hard part,"_ Rocket griped. _"Three years and now that we have a way home....He's Late."_  
  
And then there was a roar of jet engines above them.  
  
Rei and Rocket both looked up as a large, cyborg bird came flying over head. Its armor shined blue and silver, and its tail was tipped in three red claws.  
  
Rei recognized it immediately, whistling as she watched it land, "Well hello, MailBirdramon."  
  
_"Damn if he doesn't know how to make an entrance,"_ Rocket decided that the late arrival was worth it for that kind of entrance as Sylen hopped off of the Cybird Digimon's back.  
  
"Sorry I'm late!" he called out with a wave as he walked over. "There was a problem with some train thieves."  
  
_"Train thieves?"_ Rocket asked.  
  
Sylen smirked at the giant form of Unit-05. "Yeah, they stole it into the future. Thankfully we had some people on board to pull it back."  
  
"Oh my GOD!" Rei squealed. "I wish I could have been a part of that! Train Heists and Time Jumps!? That's awesome!"  
  
"Yeah, well," He scratched at the back of his head, "you weren't mentioned in the journal, so we had to play it safe in case we made a doomed timeline or something."

Rei rolled her eyes and grinned, "Well, you're excused in that case! Sometimes things just go kinda wonky."  
  
"Yeah," Sylen glanced up at the sky, then down at his watch. "So, uh...I've got somewhere to be soon, and so we've got to get you going home....but ah..." He locked his blue eyes with Rei's red. "Do you mind if I ask for some personal advice first?"  
  
"Sure," Rei nodded slowly, having a vague idea of where this was going.  
  
"So...I messed up with Akari, she's, ah....you know," Sylen rolled a hand in a circle as if to summarize. "I basically said a bunch of stupid shit...and some stuff I didn't say that's probably for the best because otherwise it probably would have piled onto that other stuff and--"  
  
"Babies," Rei declaired suddenly.  
  
"Eh?" Sylen blinked. "Well...er...yeah, that's sort of the problem I was--"  
  
"Babies," Rei nodded, firmly deciding that was the solution to everything. "You two need to have babies!"  
  
"ERm..." Sylen's skin paled at that. "It's not really that simple, Rei. It's--"

Rei cut him off and put her hands on his shoulders, practically staring straight into his soul as she repeated, for the fourth time.... "Baaabiiieeesss... Have them. Or at least one."  
  
 _'Oops, might have overstepped there,'_ Rei thought as Sylen stared at her in confusion.  
  
"What? How did you--?" And then he closed his eyes and sighed. "Never mind. You're Rei Ayanami. What else should I have expected?"  
  
"Well," Rei smiled as she let go of his shoulders, "You should Expect the Unexpected for starters!"  
  
"Hah," Sylen laughed. "Do the Impossible and Seeing the Invisible sorta stuff?"  
  
"Yeah," Rei nodded- well, at least there was that one common thread between their universes.  
  
"You know, if you were staying permanently, you'd fit in just fine around here," Sylen said as they walked to Unit-05's loading ladder.  
  
"Maybe someday I'll come back," Rei offered. "After all, I'll be free once we've settled the Angel problems!"  
  
"And stopped Third Impact," Sylen added with a curt nod. "Be careful, Rei. Who knows how your timeline's going to turn out."  
  
"Like that ever stopped you, kingy," Rei smirked as she grabbed onto the ladder.  
  
"Heh, fair enough," Sylen nodded, and with that, he walked back over towards the small stage that the technicians had set up.

* * *

 

"Ready to go home?" Rocket asked.  
  
Rei breathed out slowly as the LCL filled the Entry Plug.  
  
"Yeah," Rei nodded as they booted up to a cool 88% Synch Rate with but the flick of a few switches, both physical and mental.  
  
"ALRIGHT!" Sylen called out, shifting from human form into a crimson and green version of the Digimon Rei immediately recognized as an OmegaShoutmon. "You two ready in there?"  
  
Rei thumbed the external speakers, _"Everything's Shiny."_  
  
Sylen drew out a larger version of his Microphone stand and slammed it into the ground. **"DIMENSIONAL GATE OPEN!"**  
  
There was a wind of tugging from the tear in space behind the massive Unit-05, and then, Syeln spoke a spell.  
  
To Rei's ears, it was a familiar tongue, having heard it many times before across many dimensions.  
  
It put a faint smile to her lips as she mouthed the english translation alongside him.  
  
"We call for a Safe Travel Home, Wayward Souls." Behind them, the tugging from the gate began to intensify. "Carry On, and be returned three times as fast for this final step...!"  
  
If it worked, maybe they'd be returned before they were even missed...?  
  
"While we reverse, we continue forwards on a new path....!" Sylen then yelled out the final words: **"[SPELL 'BACKSTEP' ENGAGE!!!!]"**  
  
And then all of Unit-05 transformed into a burst of crimson flames, and shot through the vortex with a SPLOOSH!

* * *

 

You open your eyes as you feel a mighty backwards acceleration pulling you upwards, away from that Earth, past its sun and past its twin world, out into the stars and the void.  
  
Back out in the black once again for what should be the final time.  
  
You see stars and galaxies, planets and moons and streams of green and red and blue and gold energy.  
  
It shoots past as a mighty blurring vortex of light.  
  
You're moving faster than you ever have.  
  
You shoot past planets and worlds that give you dejavu.  
  
You're watching your entire journey in reverse  
  
Three years in a matter of seconds.  
  
And as you begin to feel a cushioning deceleration, you look to your left in time to see what looks like a giant metal ring shooting exotic matter into a giant rift in space, swirling around a black hole as it condenses into...  
  
"REI! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Rocket's voice interrupts your thoughts as you turn around and look down.  
  
There is a massive whirling galaxy of white string beneath you.  
  
That's the only way to explain it. A Massive disk of interwoven string centered around a glowing orb of white light that gives you a terrifying vibe.  
  
Third Impact.  
  
Happening again and again and again.  
  
The lines collapse into that core, and then shoot out again as new lines.  
  
But then you realize that your destination is at the furthest edge at all of this.  
  
A string that branched off of another string and is trailing off into darkness.  
  
A world that doesn't end in an Impact.  
  
Your world.  
  
You hear a[ faintly playing song ](https://screen.yahoo.com/carry-wayward-son-062636601.html)wafting up from that timeline as the string fades away to reveal a solar system, and then a particular blue orb covered in red.  
  
 __Carry on my Wayward Son, There'll be peace when you are done__  
  
And then you sing as you spread your wings and enter orbit over Tokyo-3.  
  
 __Lay your weary head to rest... Don't you cry no more.__  
  
Time to make a Dramatic Entrance.

* * *

  
Music was playing in Tokyo-3.  
  
Unit-01 stood face to face with what could only be described as a two-leg walking, fire breathing, leather skined alligator.  
  
The MAGI Identified it as the 22nd Angel.  
  
Shinji Ikari simply saw it as the Sixth Angel, and Twelfth monster in general, that he had to fight solo since Unit-02 was put on ice after its near one-winged Angel moment.  
  
With a grim determination Shinji drew two fresh Progressive Knives and dove at the beast who pretty much just tanked every hit from the music.  
  
Lately he'd excelled at defeating these things without playing very much music, but this thing...the 22nd Angel, just kept tanking hits and kept on going without taking much damage.  
  
And for the fifth time this battle, the Progressive Knives just snapped off in the Angel's thick hide.  
  
It smirked and spewed fire, blowing against Unit-01's hastily thrown up shields and shattering them, knocking the massive blue and orange robot into the ground with a thud.  
 _  
_

__Once I rose above the noise and confusion, Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion__  
  
Inside NERV, the staff all looked on in horror as Unit-01 struggled to get back to its feet with the Angel (codenamed Daedroth) standing over it.  
 _  
_I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high__  
  
The 22nd Angel drew its claws back in an attempt to finish the fight....  
  
And then something caught it's attention- a whif of a smell- it's head snapped upwards as it let out large loud SNOOFs to try to figure out the maddening scent.  
  
 __'Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man,__  
  
Inside the entry plug, Shinji narrowed his eyes as he tried to see whatever had distracted the Angel.  
  
 __'Though my mind could think I still was a mad man__  
  
The MAGI let out an alert as a familiar transponder IFF signal broke through the noise of re-entry.  
  
 __I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say...__  
  
There was a fireball descending rapidly towards Tokyo-3, and inside of it was a very familiar four legged form....descending on wings of lightning.  
  
 __"Carry on my wayward son,"__  
  
The 22nd Angel quickly began backtracking away from Unit-01, and began to turn tail to run.

__"There'll be peace when you are done,"__  
  
The Fireball dismissed its wings and suddenly fell faster- and then it slammed into the retreating Angel with all the force four solid steel legs could deliver to the back of a fleeing Dragonoid Angel.  
  
 __"Lay your weary head to rest--"__  
  
Smoke clouds shot up and around, obscuring the scene from any observers for a few moments, and then it dispersed, revealing the Evangelion Unit long since thought lost, both pilot and core singing to the song Unit-01 was putting out.  
  
 __"Don't you cry no more."__  
  
"Rei...?" Shinji stared on in surprise.  
  
Inside the Entry Plug, Rei Ayanami smirked, and the 22nd Angel trapped beneath Unit-05's feet whined in bracing of the pain that was about to be delivered onto it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter.


	16. The Road So Far...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rei returns to Tokyo-3, and the final fight plays on Track 11, "Earth's Melody."

Shinji Ikari came barreling out of the lab onto the Eva-dock just in time to watch as Misato helped get a rather shaken Asuka out of Unit-02's entry plug.  
  
For a moment, the whole room was silent as Asuka finally locked eyes with Shinji.  
  
And then, "You didn't leave...." Asuka started to cry in some strange hybrid of relief and dispair.

* * *

  
  
 _[_Carry on my Wayward Son, There'll be peace when you are done_](http://vimeo.com/20029291)_  
  
The 18th Angel observed Unit-01 with a wry smirk- and then the cowardly rabbit-type Angel totally turned tail to run while a giant, Cherubic style Demon leaped at the Eva in the mean time.

 __Lay your weary head to rest... Don't you cry no more.__  
  
Unit-01 just drew out a giant shotgun from the holster on the leg and blasted a hole in that Demon's head- making it explode into the shower of cubes that had been seen from the first Demon.  
  
And then with a roar, the evangelion leaped towards the 18th Angel, who looked his little rabbit head over his giant rabbit shoulders and twiched his mask-nose in dismay before the rampaging Evangelion negated its A.T. fields and brought the Shotgun to bear once more.  
  
 _ **BLAM!**_  
  
Angel blood, bone, and muscle flew through the air as the 18th Angel's torso slumped dead into the city streets.

* * *

It was of no real surprise to anyone that Unit-02 was on lock down after the last stunt.  
 _  
_Once I rose above the noise and confusion__  
  
What was mildly surprising was that Asuka herself had practically ordered it once she had calmed down from her post-battle breakdown.  
  
 __Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion__  
  
And what the most surprising of all? The fact that once Shinji had explained where and why he had been gone, Asuka had simply just hugged him and started crying once again.

* * *

 __I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high__  
  
The 4th Demon was what could only be described as a giant Hercules Beetle given a semi-humanoid form.  
  
Unit-01 dispatched it with a single sniper shot to the head while it was still several miles out over the ocean.

* * *

 

 __Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man__  
  
Needless to say, Asuka had been excused from school. While Hikari and Touji were clearly concerned for her mental well being, they became doubly so when they learned that Rei had disappeared in the fight with A.D.A.M..  
  
 __Though my mind could think I still was a mad man__  
  
Shinji was having a hard time getting her to eat anything. Although it didn't seem to affect her body's nutritional needs any for whatever strange reason, as revealed through Ritsuko's nearly daily tests (the only time she left the apartment these days).  
  
 __I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say__  
  
Whatever had happened to Asuka in Unit-02 that day, it had severely affected her on some biological level. Shinji realized this one night when he stepped out of his room to go to the bathroom only to find Asuka standing in the middle of the living room with her blue eyes glowing brightly, identical to Rei's night vision mode except for color.

* * *

 

 __Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are done__  
  
Fighting the 19th Angel was a piece of cake.  
  
All Shinji had to do was negate its A.T. fields, and then slice and dice it with a progressive knife.

* * *

 

 __Lay your weary head to rest, Don't you cry no more__  
  
Asuka, as she and Shinji sat on the couch watching one of Rei's early-morning shows (Shinji was recording it for Rei's inevitable return) then simply laid her head on her fellow (?) Pilot's shoulder as she tried (and failed) not to cry at the thought of their missing friend.

* * *

 

Evangelion Unit-06 was to be brought in from Brazil upon its completion, and a pool of potential Pilots was to be chosen.  
  
It would have been a load off of Shinji's shoulders if only not for the fact that several Demons ganged up on the unfinished Evangelion before its first A.I. upload test and shredded it to pieces before disappearing in an eerie 'pixelization zone' effect (as Mana and Maya co-coined it after reviewing the footage).  
  
Unit-07 had barely begun being made before a reactor failure caused the entire factory in Egypt to become uninhabitable.  
  
SEELE expressed their displeasure at such obvious acts of Sabotage to Gendo, but the man simply smirked inwardly as he informed them that Kaji had never left Japan, and then had the pleasure of firmly reintroducing them to Yui Ikari, causing SEELE 01, the U.N. Representative, Keel Lorenz to keel over with a near heart-attack.  
  
Most of the SEELE Instrumentality Council took the rest of the month off without even bothering to find out how the woman had returned from the grave looking more healthy than she had been going in.

* * *

 

 __Masquerading as a man with a reason__  
  
Shinji was wrapped up in a hug by his long-thought-dead mother, and blinked in confusion even as Gendo and Ritsuko explained their attempt to see if Rei was alive or dead had resulted in an accidental resurrection of Yui Ikari.  
  
 __My charade is the event of the season__  
  
Misato was the only one to ask 'how' in the privacy of Ritsuko's Lab, and the Doctor was forced to admit that she had no damned clue before downing half of a bottle of vodka (The good stuff too, freshly imported for a "Lab Experiment").  
  
 __And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know__  
  
It was surreal to have Yui Ikari back in the NERV staff hierarchy, especially for a majority of the staff who had been hired recently to replace those who had permanently moved out of the battle zone that was Tokyo-3 after the fight with A.D.A.M.

 __On a stormy sea of moving emotion__  
  
However, her expertise in Evangelion technology (having invented the giant robots in the first place) was necessary in trying to figure out how to make Unit-02 safe to battle again. Potential plans included more restraining armor and potential surgeries to remove or disable what had now been dubbed an S2 organ.  
  
 __Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean__  
  
Even so, Asuka refused to step foot back inside an Entry Plug as long as her own body was undergoing vast, unpredictable changes in the wake of a near-Third Impact.

 __I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say...__  
  
Ritsuko ran a hand through her hair in frustration as reports of Evangelion Units 08 through 10 were reported destroyed not by Angels, but either by more 'accidents' or flat out attacks from either Angels or Demons.

* * *

 

 __Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are done__  
  
After the 20th Angel was defeated, Shinji was startled by Asuka's presence in his room at the apartment. Before he could even really ask what she wanted...  
  
 __Lay your weary head to rest, Don't you cry no more.__  
  
...She pulled him into a kiss.

* * *

 

The days between the 21st and 22nd Angels blurred together for everyone due to the attack of the 6th Demon in-between.  
  
It was a flying arsenal of cannons and lasers and weaponry in a vaguely dragon-like shape, armor in gold with splashes of blue highlighting everything.  
  
Slaying it involved dodging between buildings and laser blasts and even trying to get remotely near it was practically impossible.  
  
But Shinji and Milano persevered, jumping onto a building as it rocketed up from below exactly on cue, sending them high up into the air over the dinosaur like Demon, and out of it's attack range.  
  
One Progressive Ax later, and the thing had exploded into the standard fanfare of geleatnous cubes of rainbow colors.

* * *

 

Next came the 22nd Angel, fire breathing and nearly resistant to anything Shinji threw at it.  
  
And then like a miracle thrown from the heavens above, Unit-05 descended dramatically and began a beat down on the dragonoid Angel that defied everyone's expectations.  
  
And then with a roar- Unit-05 activated its giant drill arm and then held it above their head.  
 **  
_"GIGA...DRILL...!!"_** And then it grew to ridiculous sizes all on its own and then.... _**_"BREAAAAKK!!!"_**_  
  
\--The 22nd Angel was torn to shreds by a drill as wide as its own torso.

* * *

 

 __Carry on! You will always remember.__  
  
On the loading docks, Rei climbed out of Unit-05's Entry Plug, and flashed a grin at Shinji and Asuka.  
 _  
_Carry on! Nothing equals the splendor.__  
  
And then the sixteen year old girl who had only been thirteen three months earlier leaped off of her Eva and pulled her two friends into a giant hug.  
  
 __Now your life's no longer empty__  
  
Needless to say, they hugged back just as tightly.

__Surely heaven waits for you__   


* * *

  
  
From his office, Gendo Ikari smiled as he watched the three pilots reunite.

 __Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when you are done__  
  
He opened a drawer in his desk and took out a bag of doritos.  
  
 __Lay your weary head to rest__  
  
And with a firm grip on the bag's top...  
  
 __Don't you cry, don't you cryyyyy no more__  
  
 ** _POP._**

* * *

 

"Three years!?" Shinji and Asuka yelled out in surprise at the same time Rei yelled out "Three Months!?"  
  
The whole situation was completely bizarre, Misato decided as she watched her little family reunited once more in the NERV cafeteria.  
  
Rei's physicals had been completed after a shower and it was confirmed that Rei was really their Rei, just three years older and a lot of tattoos she hadn't had originally.  
  
Three years and a whole load of experiences that would take a lot longer for Rei to retell than it would for Shinji and Asuka to retell their three months of solitude.  
  
For Misato, observing Rei now was like observing a completely different person. It was sad, but in some way, Misato saw just a tiny bit of herself in Rei now. There was this haunted look in Rei's eyes as she retold some of her tales, especially the ones that took place in alternate versions of the city they resided in.  
  
So many different worlds and Rei and Rocket had just kept moving forwards without tying themselves down. It eventually got them back home but....  
  
Misato closed her eyes as she remembered her own aimless meandering to a job at NERV. Germany hadn't even been her final stop when she'd met Asuka, just a stepping stone to the current present day of fighting Angels.  
  
And if Misato was being entirely honest with herself, she probably wouldn't have stuck around here for very long if it hadn't been for the Angel's to grab her attention, and then Rei and then Shinji and then Asuka to hold it.  
  
But when they left? When the Angels were gone?  
  
Where would Misato Katsuragi go?

And that terrified her so much because of what she saw in Rei right then and there.  
  
But even as much as Rei clearly loved being home with family once again after so many years.... there was another look in those crimson eyes.  
  
Wanderlust.  
  
God, the things Rei had seen and the places she'd been? Even if it was just to come home, she looks like she's ready to travel somewhere else.  
  
"So," Rei suddenly changed subjects, "What's for dinner, Shinji?"  
  
As it turned out, she just wanted to head back to the apartment.

* * *

 

Dinner (a victorious feast of pasta and dinner rolls) was cooked by Shinji as per usual. For the first time in three months, he and Misato didn't have to pressure Asuka into eating.  
  
In fact, it was the most food either of them had seen Asuka eating since the whole thing with Unit-02.  
  
It was also, coincidentally, the most food either of them had seen Rei eating in, well...ever.  
  
"I've MISSED this!" Rei said loudly once she finished downing the rest of her plate of food. "Your cooking is the best, Shinji! Even the other yous weren't as good as this!"  
  
"I'm sure they'd be horrified to hear you say that," Shinji shot back with a smirk.  
  
Misato was just glad that things were heading back to normal.

* * *

 

As they all sat down to watch the recorded Digimon Anime episodes Shinji had recorded (Only three months' worth of new episodes, boo), Rei came to the opinion that it was a lot harder to be interested in something that she knew a different outcome to.  
  
That said, she nearly jumped out of her seat in surprise when two of those freaking Emoticon Towers appeared on screen, appearing in a reverse of the pixelization effect everyone was used to for different reasons.  
  
"ARGH! Towers! Get out of my anime!" Rei yelled, nearly throwing a pillow at the TV in frustration.  
  
And then the Emoticon Towers did the unthinkable- and shifted into two Digimon with a similar effect.  
  
Misato- being the only one in the apartment who hadn't seen that episode before, but had seen the footage of the first Demon hit-and-run on Unit-06- just asked Shinji what day the episode had been recorded on.

* * *

 

The video played out of what Rei called a Devidramon and a Megidramon disappearing into a pixelization effect, and then it rewound, and the same effect replayed again. Rewind, and play again.  
  
The four of them were gathered around Asuka's laptop, which was hooked into the MAGI database through Misato's account, comparing the recorded footage to something that had appeared in an anime a whole day before the recorded attack had even happened.  
  
They were even the same exact Demons....or rather, Digimon.  
  
"So the Emo'Towers Rei ran into can turn into Digimon," Asuka surmised. "And those Demons we've been fighting have actually been these transformed towers?"  
  
"As if they weren't creepy enough," Rei griped, "stealing the shapes of Digimon to fight us. That's just low!"  
  
"So what do we do with this info?" Shinji asked. "I mean, are we even sure that the towers Rei fought are actually the Demons we've been fighting? We're operating off of the assumption that an anime episode predicted an inter-dimensional cross over."  
  
"I think it's about time we bring in the Anime company," Misato mused, bringing out her cellphone. "Even if this was a prediction, this is still a major security leak."

* * *

 

The next morning, it was discovered that the Production Company that had done the Digimon Anime did not exist post Second Impact.  
  
Quite literally it did not exist. Every person who had worked at said company had died in the impact, and nobody at the channel that was broadcasting the Anime had even known that they were airing the show in the first place.  
  
And even more bizarre? The technician that had been on record for working the nights the anime aired....did not exist.  
  
He had been a silver haired, green eyed intern who had evidently gotten the job through a fake ID with the name of "Benny Vitruvius."  
  
And after any official inquiries were made, the boy had simply disappeared from the face of the earth.  
  
"What the hell kind of conspiracy have we stumbled into here?" Mana asked as she looked over everything that she was helping Ritsuko and Misato search through.  
  
"It's too bad the other you didn't know anything about this," Misato grumbled, "I'm willing to bet that this is why our world is different from the one that A.D.A.M. won in. One major divergence to prompt all the other Time Butterflies."  
  
"Butterflies," Ritsuko groaned and downed another shot of an unknown alcohol. "Ugh. Hate those things now."  
  
"Agreed," Mana nodded. "After being caught inside A.D.A.M. like that, I'm kinda sick of them too."  
  
"I propose that we never say Butterflies or A.D.A.M. in the same sentence ever again!" Misato said with a determined tone of voice.  
  
"Hear here!" The other two agreed with vigorous nods.

* * *

 

In orbit over the earth, the Time Demon sat in his human guise, impossibly existing in the void of space without any form of protection.  
  
"Hm, at least they didn't chant 'beetlejuice' three times..." The Demon smirked.

* * *

 

In the void between timelines and universes, a multitude of spheres gathered over the galaxy-like bind of white lines that was the ever-repeating Third Impact.  
  
The various spheres transformed into butterfly swarms, and then all merged together before transforming into a solid sphere of purple mass, before descending suddenly towards the branch it had been exiled from.

* * *

 

The Time Demon's smirk widened. "Oh wait....they said something three times worse."  
  
And then with a snap of his fingers, a giant tear in the fabric of reality tore open above him, allowing the spheroid form to move through the tear into the timeline proper.  
  
"And now to set the trap," And then the Time Demon disappeared in a flicker of that same pixelization effect.

* * *

 

The old school building had been fully repaired at some point during the previous three months, and in the same old classroom (Although it seemed that it had been renumbered "R-5" for whatever reason. (Rei suspected it was in memory of her and Rocket's disappearance)), Rei reintroduced herself to her stunned classmates.  
  
Shock then turned into someone calling out for a party, and Hikari did little to get everyone back in line, the Teacher just decided that today would be a free day in celebration.  
  
Through the next few hours, Rei caught up with events and people she'd sorely missed after three years/months of absence.  
  
One thing that caught Rei off guard the most was that Hikari and Touji had officially announced that they were dating. (She congratulated them with a giant hug.) Another was that Kensuke had been absent for the last month. (Rei called Misato, and she had no clue where the boy had gone off to either.)  
  
Another mystery for later, Rei supposed.

* * *

 

Asuka was testing a new plug-suit design that would hopefully suppress the strange powers growing inside her when she regretfully had to tell Ritsuko that it didn't work.  
  
How did she know?  
  
"My head itches," She said flatly. "Not a physical itch, but something more like a warning alarm."  
  
Ritsuko went to question what Asuka meant by that when the Angel Alarm sounded.

* * *

 

Misato swore, Maya jumped to the nearest terminal, and Mana's face paled severely as the MAGI alerts filled every available screen.  
  
 **_A.T. FIELD DETECTED. FIRST ANGEL CONFIRMED._**  
  
A.D.A.M. had returned.

* * *

 

The descending violet orb could be seen from the school yard as it settled into position high up above the city, nearly blocking the sun and the sky out with its sheer mass that practically radiated a dark aura of miasma.  
  
Rei narrowed her eyes as she felt the sheer terrifying presence that rippled from that sight, an aura, an A.T. field could be felt.  
  
She knew it was A.D.A.M. even before her cellphone rang.

* * *

 

The Orb that was A.D.A.M.'s currently assumed Embryonic form rested above the city without change for however long it had taken for Rei and Shinji to get back to NERV and begin suiting up for battle.  
  
Unit-05 hadn't even been cleared for battle by the technical staff due to all the undocumented changes in it, but those were easily dismissible given the situation, especially since Unit-05 had been modified to run on some unknown power source that, while it wasn't an S2 Organ, was definitely enough to keep the Eva completely powered on at all times.  
  
Gendo Ikari glanced at his wife as she worked on a computer in Terminal Dogma to begin the unfreezing of Unit-02.  
  
Asuka would throw a fit that he had authorized the unfreezing without consulting her first, but given that A.D.A.M. had resurfaced not even a whole day after Rei had returned, Gendo knew that she would want to be out there.  
  
And even so, a Third Impact caused by a Pilot would be more preferable to a Third Impact caused by an Angel.  
  
Bizarrely as well, the MAGI had been detecting the strange, still unidentifiable DNA wavelengths coming from the 'Demons' that seemed to be surrounding Tokyo-3 at a safe distance away from anything that could engage them.  
  
Spectators, it was easy to surmise. The Demons had come to watch the First Angel do battle.  
  
If Rei's theory **_was_** correct and these things had come from beyond time and space, perhaps their attention had been drawn to this world after A.D.A.M. and Unit-05 had disappeared into Leliel's Dirac Sea.  
  
It made sense they would want to watch what battle would unfold from the return of both of those former exiles.  
  
"Hey, Gendo?" Yui asked suddenly.

"Yes?" Gendo answered.  
  
"Does Shinji still have that key I gave him?"  
  
 **Oh**. Gendo blinked. _**That**_ could make a difference.

* * *

Shinji was five seconds from getting in Unit-01's entry plug when he heard his father's voice calling over the intercom.  
  
_"Shinji, meet your mother at the elevators in one minute, please."_  
  
Rei sent Shinji a confused glance, and he just shrugged.

* * *

 

  
"So you're going to show me what this key does?" Shinji asked as the elevator descended rapidly towards a certain floor.  
  
"Multi-step, really," Yui replied after a moment, running her finger over the necklace key that had even allowed the elevator to go this far down in the first place. "First is the elevator access, and then..."  
  
 _Ding!_  
  
They exited into a dark hallway, lit only with dim and burnt out lamps, with various doorways blocked with dust covered orange horse blockers.  
  
If Shinji could guess the age, he'd guess rather accurately that this place hadn't been touched since he was three.  
  
"We use it on this door," Yui continued after they reached the end of the hallway.  
  
The key clicked in the lock easily, and then the door swung open with a grind.  
  
Yui stepped into the pitch black room inside, and then stuck the key one more time into a slot in the wall.  
  
Another _click,_ and then the room was lit with a large spot light hanging from the ceiling.  
  
Shinji stared on as he recognized what was at the center of the room.

A human sized version of the weapon Asuka had made during her near ascension...and it was stuck into a frozen block of ice of all things.  
  
"It's the Impact Lance that triggered Second Impact," Yui explained as they walked towards the object. "When it was removed from A.D.A.M., the Impact occurred, and the only way to halt it from completely happening was to jam it back into some form of ice."  
  
"So if we remove this, then won't the Second Impact start again?" Shinji guessed.  
  
"No," Yui said simply, circling the lance-in-the-ice-cube once for observation. "That was part of my deal as well. That if the time came to remove this lance, no Impact would begin."  
  
"Deal...?" Shinji blinked, processing all of this. "You know, **_mom_** ," He stressed the word in a way that leaned slightly towards sarcasm, "the more I hear about this deal you made, the less I like it."  
  
Yui Ikari's eyes met Shinji Ikari's then, and for a moment, Shinji saw them as red instead of green.

"It was all for your happiness, Shinji," she said simply, almost as if it were a mantra. "That was what drove me to this. I wanted a world where you could be happy when the fighting was over."  
  
"Three months ago you told me that," Shinji frowned. "I still don't believe it. I was three when you died. Three. How could I be happy after that?"  
  
"You've made friends," Yui shrugged slightly. "You've made a family beyond the one your father and I failed to provide. Once all of this is over with, don't you think you deserve to be happy with them? Every deal has its price. In order to even reach this point, I had to pay it in full up front."  
  
"Fine." Shinji sighed and shook his head. "So what do you want me to do with this then?" he pointed at the Lance. "Pull it from the stone like it's Excaliber?"  
  
"Exactly that," Yui smiled.  
  
With out so much as a drum roll or any kind of fanfare, Shinji grabbed the lance by the handle, and pulled it out of the chunk of ice.  
  
It melted the moment the lance was fully removed.

* * *

The orb above Tokyo-3 rumbled, and cracks began to form in its shell.  
  
Dark smoke fled from the cracks, forming even darker clouds in the air over the city.  
  
And then a rumbling thought poured out into the minds of everyone below it.  
  
 **~I....AM.....~**  


* * *

  
Yui and Shinji both looked vaguely upwards.  
  
"Elevator?" Shinji asked.  
  
"ASAP," Yui answered with out a moment to think.

* * *

 

  
 _ **~REBORN!!!!~**_  
  
The shell shattered, and for a moment, nothing could be seen....  
  
Then a giant humanoid form descended from the clouds on butterfly wings.  
  
A.D.A.M. however looked nothing like his previous appearance besides that. His clothes were torn to shreds, and large chunks of his body were missing, filled in only with giant leaping arcs of electricity. His face was missing its skin entirely, revealing an eerie skull of translucent crystalline....something. Something that glowed with the same arcing electricity that was filling in the gaps.  
 **  
~AFTER THREE THOUSAND YEARS I HAVE RETURNED...! YOU WILL DIE! YOU WILL ALL PERISH AND SHALL NEVER ATTAIN REBIRTH AS I HAVE!!~** He stopped half-way down to the city and then a large shock wave of energy shot out of him- electrifying the air and making everyone's hair stand on end across the globe.

  
It happened in a heartbeat, and Reality _**SCREAMED**_ at him for tripping that certain flag of meta-universal programming.... and A.D.A.M. smirked.  
  
 **~NOR SHALL A SINGLE NEW SOUL BE BORN TO THIS WORLD EITHER. YOUR FATE IS SEALED. ALL LIFE ON THIS PLANET SHALL DIE EVEN IF I AM DEFEATED. AND THEN...~** A.D.A.M. fell to the city below as if gravity suddenly cared he existed. Dirt and smoke flew up from the newly added crater in the city streets. **~WHEN THE WORLD IS EMPTY, THE CHILDREN OF THE WHITE MOON SHALL INHERIT THIS PLANET.~**  
  
Lightning shot out from the smoke cloud, adding to it as the bursts of energy struck anything around it that cold be destroyed- causing everything that was hit to explode violently.  
 **  
~BEHOLD MY UNDYING MIGHT, LILIM! BEHOLD AND TREMBLE IN FEAR!~** A.D.A.M. then lashed out, stomping through the city and casually blasting things with lightning bolts.

* * *

 

  
"Well Someone's throwing quite the temper-tantrum, aren't they?" Ritsuko grumbled as she waited outside Unit-05's entry plug along with Rei for Shinji to return from where-ever Yui had called him to.  
  
_"This is just about par the course, really,"_ Rocket grumbled.  
  
"Eyuup," Rei nodded. "Remember that fragment we ran into in that vampire flick?"  
  
_"Oh yeah, that fragment was so pissed!"_ Rocket agreed. _"Mainly because everyone was sparkling but come on it's not like anyone could do anything about that. Stupid atmosphere just had a really high refractive index."_  
  
"You're just mad because I got to be shinier than you!" Rei stuck her tongue out at the giant robot.  
  
Ritsuko Akagi just closed her eyes and breathed through another city shaking tremor. Potential end of the world here and these two were making jabs at trashy romance novels.... which apparently they ran into some variation of actually existing out there in the multiverse?  
  
 _'I Swear,'_ Ritsuko thought quietly as the whole world shook to its core once more, _'if we survive this, I'm taking Maya, and we're heading somewhere where we don't have internet or any kind of science-y things to do for years._ ' A slight pause in thought, and then, "Maybe somewhere with a lot of alcohol too."  
  
"What was that?" Rei asked.  
  
"Huh?" Ritsuko tried to brush it off as if she hadn't just said that aloud.  
  
"We're ready!" Shinji called out as he came running out from the lab holding an Impact Lance over his shoulder.  
  
"Alright let's get this show on the road!" Ritsuko called out with a sharp double clap. "Everyone synch up and launch!"

 

* * *

 

_"What's with the lance?"_ Milano asked as Shinji fitted the miniature (compared to the Eva) Impact Lance into one of the shoulder pauldrons.  
  
"Hopefully our secret weapon," Shinji said once he was sure it was secure in the slot that seemed like it had been made just for the weapon. (Knowing Yui Ikari, it probably had been.) "Mom says it should grow to full size when we call for it," he then climbed back towards the Entry Plug and slid into the already filling plug before its door sealed behind him. "If it works, we'll stop A.D.A.M. in his tracks."  
  
_"It feels weird."_ Milano said after a moment. _"It's like... time feels slower in that shoulder now."_  
  
"That would explain the ice," Shinji muttered.

* * *

 

A.D.A.M. had evidently gotten bored of blasting things at range and had taken to causally delivering a rather large beat down against an innocent storage building with nothing but his hands and feet.  
  
Such was the sight that Rei Ayanami saw when Unit-05 exited the launch catapult.  
  
It was also all they saw for all of two and a half seconds before A.D.A.M. stopped in his tracks, turned his head eeriely towards them and then breathed in. ** _~Fuuuss....~_**  
  
"CRAP!" Rei and Rocket yelled at the same time as they moved to get Unit-05's legs moving them out of the line of fire.  
  
 _ **~RO DAH!~**_  
  
There was a crack of thunder as the sound barrier undeniably shattered from the sheer concussive force that came from that simple shout.

Indeed, the sound barrier broke, along with just about everything else in the path of those three words that seemed to repeat over and over again in the broken space that followed.  
  
Buildings collapsed, cars were sent flying...  
  
And all of it hit Unit-05 within the span of that final half of a second, sending the giant four legged robot rolling backwards like a tumbleweed encased in a city's ruins.  
  
This was the sight Unit-01 saw as it came out of the launch platform.  
  
"REI!" Shinji cried out in terror.

* * *

 

"What the hell was that!?" Asuka yelled as she uncovered her ears.  
  
Even down in the Geofront, deep down inside the Evangelion launch lab, they had felt the sheer force behind that attack.  
  
"I don't know!" Ritsuko yelled as well.  
  
"WHAT?" Maya asked, very loudly.  
  
It took everyone all of three seconds before they realized that they were all suffering either from a temporary hearing loss, or the sound barrier really had just been broken very badly.

* * *

 

The LCL inside the powered down entry plug was swirled around like a drink poured into a tumbler and shaken to the point of being stirred.  
  
"Oooohh...did anyone get the number on that truck?" Rocket griped as his mental projection floated around inside the currents.  
  
"Ask me again when the system finishes rebooting..." Rei groaned as she glanced around the seemingly disabled entry plug.  
  
 _THAT_ had **NOT** been normal.  
  
Rei had been hit by that very same shout a few times during the last three years... once even having used it a few times as well.... But never in her entire life had she ever been thrown for a loop like that. Never before had merely being hit by that shout caused the Evangelion Unit's internal computers to be sent into a forced reboot cycle.  
  
Really, it was a miracle they were still synchronized at all. But then again, there were a few off and on modifications that-  
  
Unit-05's external eyes booted back on then, and Rei could see beyond the Entry Plug again... not that it was much given the sheer amount of building rubble burying them.  
  
But, all things considered, it was enough to see Unit-01 charge at A.D.A.M. with a Progressive Knife.

  
 _ **~ZUN HAAL VIIK!~**_  
  
Annnnnd there went the Progressive Knife flying out of Unit-01's hands like it had just been yanked out with a magnet. Twirling through the air, that Progressive Knife gained a lot of distance and then....  
  
A distant splash was heard from the harbor just out of sight of anything.  
  
It was then that inter-eva communications came back on and Rei got a good look at Shinji's shocked face.  
  
A.D.A.M.'s undead face split into a grin and then he said three more words: _**~TIID KLO UL!~**_  
  
And then he moved like lightning, delivering a solid downwards swinging right hook to Unit-01's face.  
  
There would have been a sonic boom as Unit-01 smashed into the ground from the sheer force, but, again, the sound barrier was still broken.  
  
With his two opponents firmly down for the count, A.D.A.M. began stalking through the city, chanting repeatedly, _**~STRUN BAH QO.~**_  
  
Lightning began bashing down from the clouds above, reigning destruction down upon Tokyo-3 once more, and A.D.A.M. seemed to relish in the chaos as he stomped about. Now the lightning wasn't even coming from his body but raining down from the heavens.

But lightning was random, and fortunately struck one of the largest buildings pinning Unit-05 down, shattering the building and giving the Evangelion enough strength to break out of the rock tumbleweed.  
  
Rei smirked inside her entry plug, "Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine, bud..."  
  
And then she and Rocket yelled as one: __"WULD NAH KEST!"__  
  
....and much to their confusion, absolutely nothing happened.  
  
"Well, that sucks," Rei flatly muttered as A.D.A.M. grinned at them.  
  
 ** _~VEN GAAR NOS!~_**  
  
"No, we're _**SCREWED!**_ " Rocket yelled out as a cyclone formed out of thin air rushing at them faster than they could move out of the way, launching them upwards into the air and high above the city....  
  
And then once they were a certain distance over the city, suddenly Unit-05 accelerated from their previously uttered shout, launching them straight at A.D.A.M. at an angle he wasn't expecting....  
  
He got four feet to the face and chest and went flying. When he landed, the city shook and trembled again, but this time with a noticeable effect.  
  
Nobody heard the impact.  
  
"Okay why didn't the external microphones hear anything?" Rei face palmed inside the Entry Plug once they landed.  
  
"That's probably why that didn't work before," Rocket grimaced. "We didn't have any air for our voices to hit!"  
  
"Then why did it work all of a sudden once we were in the air?" Rei frowned as they watched A.D.A.M. get to his feet.  
  
"Who knows, doesn't matter," Rocket growled. "Shinji, Milano! You kids alright over there?"  
  
"We're okay," Milano replied. "I think Shinji's jaw might be broken though." Shinji groaned over the radio, giving a thumbs up on screen in confirmation.  
  
"Okay I've got a crazy idea," Rei said, "We need to get into the air again."  
  
"I dunno if our legs can handle another jolt like that," Rocket warned. "The computer's throwing hydraulic errors at me."  
  
A.D.A.M. got his wits about him and glared at Unit-05. **_~IIZ SLEN NUS!~_**  
  
And then a wave of pure cold shot out at Unit-05 and literally froze the giant robot in place.  
  
"CRAP!" Rocket yelled as everything from the hydraulics to the computer systems began to freeze solid. "Those errors just started getting ten times wor-"  
  
Then the Entry Plug went dark, and Rocket's voice disappeared from Rei's mind.  
  
"Damn it!" Rei grimaced as she watched ice crystals begin to form inside the LCL. "Not good, not good, not good...!"  
  


* * *

  
Asuka stared on at the frozen Unit-05 on the screen for all of three seconds before whirling to turn towards anyone to order Unit-02 to be thawed.  
  
Gendo just raised a hand to silence her, and motioned simply at the loading dock before nodding.  
  
Asuka smirked, and whispered a mere, "Thanks," before running out the door towards Unit-02.

* * *

 

Rei had found herself in Tamriel many times over her three year trip, but the very first time had been during the era of the Last Dragonborn. In that world, Rei had encountered said Dragonborn, and through that encounter, Rei discovered that the language of the local Dragons likely seemed to be some general 'reality warpers cheat code' language for a good portion of the multiverse. A theory that increasingly became common over many more worlds and at least two more years worth of running into people using that language to change the world around them.  
  
That very same Dragonborn had the bright idea of taking an already slain Dragon's soul and using it to power the Evangelion outside of any external power source. It had worked, but with the entirely unintentional side-effect of allowing a fully synched Rei and Rocket to use dragon shouts. The Dragonborn had then taught Rei every word of power that they had learned over their adventures, in hopes that if a confrontation with A.D.A.M. ever occurred again, Rei could turn the tables on him in an Eva on Angel fight.  
  
The whole coincidence had proven useful in some of the confrontations with A.D.A.M.'s fragments, leading to those fragments deaths, which in turn lead to A.D.A.M.'s currently zombie like appearance... but there was only one shout that they had discovered was useless for almost every purpose during their experiments. It was a shout that only affected Rei and Rei alone, and didn't expand to affect the Evangelion even at the highest synch rate.  
  
But even so, stuck inside a quickly freezing block of LCL, Rei chanted three words, **"Mul Qah Diiv."**  
  
The effect was immediate, causing a blinding orange aura to flare up around Rei's body, halting the LCL's freezing for now.

Rei sighed out in relief.  
  
That would buy her a little bit of time, but all things considered, she was pretty much screwed.  
  
Even if that ice broke soon, thawing the LCL or any of the Evangelion's systems would likely take much longer than anything they could do about it.  
  
And even if they got out of this unscathed.... this half-dead A.D.A.M. had made it so that their shouting ability wouldn't work without being able to vocalize the sounds.  
  
"Cheater," Rei growled, "using psychic mind sounds instead of talking."  
  
It really was cheating. He didn't even care that he'd broken the sound barrier. Probably hadn't even noticed that sound wasn't even working right and-- Suddenly the ethereal glow flickered and faded away from around Rei.  
  
Not even wasting precious oxygen on speaking, Rei just closed her eyes and fought back the urge to cry.  
  
That hadn't even lasted as long as it did during training, probably because Unit-05 wasn't even online anymore, and Rocket was probably unconscious.  
  
Was this really how it was going to end?  
  
At least the rest of the LCL hadn't started freezing over.

* * *

 

As long as they didn't move, A.D.A.M. seemed fit to ignore them.  
  
Shinji grimaced as he watched A.D.A.M. breathing fire at an ammunition's building. _'Stupid sympathy pains.'_ That was the one problem with synchronizing to a high level.  
  
"Sorry, Shinji..." Milano whispered. "Do you have any ideas?"  
  
 _'No,'_ Shinji looked out at the demented Angel that was now clapping gleefully as the building exploded like fireworks going off. _'If we try to help Rei and Rocket, he'll come at us again. Might even do something worse than freezing them...'_  
  
It was then that they felt the ground shaking from something running....  
  
And then they heard something running.  
  
A.D.A.M. heard it too, and turned his head to his left dramatically just in time to get a glowing crimson fist to the face.  
  
There was a hiss to the air as everything seemed to move in slow motion...  
  
And then a SNAP as A.D.A.M. went flying from Unit-02's meteor punch into a ruined building- causing it to fall apart with a loud, gratifying, CRASH.  
  
 _ **_"Sound Barrier,"_**_ Asuka's voice echoed out over the damaged city through the Eva's external speakers, _**_"Reestablished."_**_  
  
And then with a casual stride over to the frozen Unit-05, Unit-02 reached a glowing hand out and Asuka Yelled. Nothing that was in any language, but just a raw emotion paired with a thought.

  
The Ice around Unit-05 glowed red for a moment, and started to hiss as it began to heat up...  
  
Then it shattered, and the Evangelion fell to its knees as its systems began to work their way online from the sudden shut down.

* * *

 

Inside Unit-05's entry plug, Rei breathed out in relief as the frozen LCL quickly began to thaw out.  
  
"I don't know what just happened," Rei started to laugh, "but wow am I glad."

* * *

 

_"You okay, Shinji?"_ Asuka asked, foregoing the internal radio for external, just to rub it in A.D.A.M.'s skeletal face.  
  
_"He's got a broken jaw,"_ Milano reported, doing much the same for the same reasons.  
  
_"Lemme fix that then,"_ Unit-02 then waved its arms through the air, glowing golden for a moment before that glow shifted over to Unit-01.  
  
There was then a sharp snap, followed by Shinji yelping out a pain filled _"OW!"_  
  
A.D.A.M. started to get to his feet, growling at Unit-02...  
 _ **  
_"STAY DOWN IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU!"_**_ Auska yelled out, and A.D.A.M. cried out in shock before falling back down onto his back.  
  
(If you listened to A.D.A.M.'s psychic mutterings, you could hear the words **Faas Ru Maar** being repeated in dismay.)  
  
_"You okay now, Shinji?"_ Asuka asked.  
  
_"Yeah,"_ Shinji's voice sounded a bit higher pitched than usual, _"just fine. Ow... how did you even do that?"_  
  
_"Doesn't matter right now,"_ Unit-02 turned to glare at A.D.A.M. who was realizing, Wait, shouldn't he be attacking?, and was getting back to his feet. _"I'll take it from here."_  
  
And then Unit-02's halo appeared as the crimson armor flickered to gold, and then they leaped at A.D.A.M. with a roar.  
  
A punch- a kick- a lot of close quarters combat skills were unleashed on A.D.A.M. in quick succession- sending the would-be-god reeling for a few moments before he began delivering back almost twice as much as he got.

* * *

 

From Misato's position watching the battle, she couldn't help but to think back to Second Impact. Seeing that rising form of terror destroying Antarctica....  
  
Ritsuko and Yui could only try to keep up with the flood of data coming in watching the two titants duel it out.  
  
Maya and Mana could only just stare on in awe as they tried to keep track of everything.  
  
As for Gendo Ikari.... he could only accurately compare the fight as two Gods dueling for supremacy and the right to declare Third Impact.

* * *

 

 _ **D VUR SHAAN!~**_ A.D.A.M.'s attacks suddenly began speeding up faster and faster, and Unit-02 began struggling to block attacks and deliver them back...  
  
_"CHEATER!"_ Asuka yelled, and then repeated his own words back at him- _**_"I CAN GO FASTER THAN THAT!"_**_  
  
And then Unit-02 sped up to match his speed.  
  
 ** _~SU GRAH DUN!~_** A.D.A.M. yelled- speeding up faster.  
  
 _ **_"YOU CALL THIS A WORKOUT!?"_**_ And Unit-02 sped up as well.  
  
The battle of one-ups-man-ship continued to increase faster and faster until the point that the two dueling combatants were a blur of motion.  
  
With his attention diverted, A.D.A.M. never saw Unit-01 drawing the Impact Lance from the Shoulder pauldron, and growing it to full size.  
  
And then.... _**~FEIM ZII!~**_  
  
A.D.A.M.'s whole body turned into a cloud of smoke, causing Unit-02 to trip and fall forwards at a sudden lack of anything to hit.  
  
And then when he reformed-- _**~YOL TOOR SHUL!~**_ A.D.A.M. breathed a burst of burning flames onto Unit-02's exposed back.  
  
With his attention diverted, A.D.A.M. never saw Unit-01 leaping into motion....  
  
Thus was the moment Unit-05 finally booted back online and the pilot synchronized with the core. Rei and Rocket watched as one as the Impact Lance hit A.D.A.M.'s back and--

 _ **SNAP**_  
  
\--Broke into three pieces.

* * *

 

  
The whole world seemed to grind to a halt in that moment.  
  
Yui Ikari felt the bottom of her gut drop out as she watched in painfully slow motion as two blade fragments, one left side shorter than the right side, hit the ground while Unit-01 and A.D.A.M. both turned their heads to look at the hilt still in Unit-01's hand.  
  
Then A.D.A.M. moved like a blur, grabbing Unit-01's right arm and with a wrenching SNAP, broke the Evangelion's arm, forcing them to drop the hilt of the impact lance and then everyone was forced to watch as A.D.A.M. took Unit-01 and threw it over his shoulder into a still recovering Unit-05.  
  
Their last best hope lay shattered on the ground, the Evangelions had proven rather ineffective....  
  
And Mana Kirishima let out a scream of terror, indicating to many just how lucky they had gotten the first time they fought this guy.

* * *

 

Unit-05's legs had locked up when Unit-01 hit them, leaving the green painted Eva kneeling on the ground, holding a limp Unit-01 in their arms while Unit-02 lay on the ground near by in its normal crimson coloring, if albeit a bit orange-r than normal due to the excessive heat that had just been applied.  
  
"Ow..." Shinji groaned, grabbing at his real right arm inside the entry plug. "That really hurts."  
  
"Asuka? Any chance you can do that healing thing again?" Milano asked.... To no response.  
  
The visual image of Unit-02's entry plug showed Asuka clearly conscious, but eyes wrenched shut and mouth growling in pain. Groot just grunted in response in her stead.  
  
"I don't know what's worse," Rocket grumbled, "the fact that we've had our assess handed to us so thoroughly, or the fact that we pretty much breezed through everything before this just to die here....singing no less. Anyone feel like singing right now? Because I sure don't anything to be singing about."  
  
"At least sound is working again," Rei mused. "So we can use that final trump card of mine any time... but I dunno if it'll do anything."  
  
"Run it by me," Asuka ordered through gritted teeth.  
  
"I shout at him, three specific words that should make him mortal for a short time," Rei explained, "then we kill him."  
  
"With what?" Shinji asked. "He can disarm any weapon we throw at him with ease....and he broke the impact lance."  
  
"I launch Unit-05, and aim at him," Rei replies. "One shot, really, but if I make it big enough it should plow right through him in one shot."  
  
"And if it doesn't?" Milano asked.  
  
"If it doesn't," Rocket answered, "you grab what's left of that lance, get Unit-02, and get back into the Geofront as fast as possible."  
  
"That's suicide," Shinji glared at the image in his vision.

"Maybe," Rei shrugged. "But hey, third time's the charm. Maybe it'll stick this time...hopefully for him instead of us."  
  
"I'll have to unlock the leg hydraulics," Rocket added. "We're in a good leaping position at the moment, but the moment I release the locks we're going to go flying."  
  
"I'd totally help if my armor wasn't melted into the city right now," Asuka offered, sounding sarcastic despite the pain.  
  
"Alright then," Rei breathed as they let Unit-01 down to the ground as silently as possible.  
  
They aimed their drill out, and even more silently, made it grow to giant size...but not enough to cover their head....yet.  
  
 __"OI! SKULL FACE!"__ Rocket called out, drawing A.D.A.M.'s attention towards them.  
  
 **~What do you--~**  
  
 **_"JOOR!"_** Rei roared.  
  
And then A.D.A.M.'s body ignited in blinding blue flames. _ **~!!!!!!!!~**_ he screamed both psychically and physically, hands going to his head as the flames of reality rending at his very existence.  
  
He knew then that he would die that day- he was no longer Immortal, but Mortal.  
  
 **_"ZAH!"_** Rocket yelled next, causing the flames to tower upwards towards the heavens, piercing the cloud layer of miasma and continuing upwards into space, where it shot past the Time Demon by a quarter mile, who chuckled at such a foolish display of Finite thinking.

 **_"FRUL!!!"_** Both shouted as one, causing a switch in reality's circuits to flip, and deep within the MAGI Trio core, an observation flag on A.D.A.M.'s A.T. field flipped temporarily from "Active" to "Doomed." (The other two MAGI chided Balthazar for the attempted humor and set it to "Neutralized" a moment later.)  
  
The flames shot upwards and outwards in all directions now as Unit-05's legs sprung forwards with one final leap.  
  
Mortal, Finite, and Temporary, this branch of A.D.A.M. realized something then- he would never live to see Third Impact.  
  
 __"GIGA LASER DRILL BREAK!!!"__  
  
The drill smashed into A.D.A.M.'s chest- and then something exploded- obscuring the result with a massive smoke cloud.  
For a few moments, everyone waited with baited breath.  
  
Seconds seemed to drag out into minutes...

And then the smoke cleared- Unit-05 stood there in a triumphant position...with the remains of the giant drill falling to the ground revealing the smoking and sparking motor that had spun such a massive weapon up to speed.  
  
And just across from the robot that now fell to its knees, unable to support its own weight was A.D.A.M., who was still wreathed in burning flames, and had a rather large chunk of his front missing, now filed in with more lightning bursts, but otherwise alive.  
  
"Crap!" Asuka grit her teeth and forced Unit-02 back into golden mode so they could pry themselves off of the ground and back to their feet. "How bloody strong is this guy!?"  
  
"I am groot," Groot helpfully pointed out that A.D.A.M. was very much in his final death throes, crying out and stumbling blindly around the city as the flames continually worked to destabilize him.  
  
"We've still got a chance then!" Shinji said with a nod even as Unit-01 walked over and picked up one of the two blade fragments from the Impact lance with their left hand.  
  
"You'll have to hurry!" Rei warned, "I don't know how long that effect will last on him! It barely kept dragons grounded for thirty seconds."  
  
"We'll double team him then, Shinji," Asuka said, having Unit-02 pick up the other blade half and the hilt if for no other reason than to complete the trifecta of broken parts.  
  
"Right then," Shinji nodded.  
  
And then A.D.A.M. whirled on them and shouted even despite being wreathed in flames.

 **~FUS!~**  
  
The short, and thankfully non-sound barrier breaking, burst of forwards sound hit Unit-02's left hand, knocking the impact lance hilt out of it and sending it flying though the air, where it landed next to Unit-05's broken legs.  
  
Everyone stood still, glaring at their respective enemy(ies) as the unseen timer on the blue flames counted down.  
  
 **~You....Where did you get that _lance_?~** A.D.A.M. breathed heavily, affecting even his thought patterns. **~Where did you learn those _WORDS!?_ ~**  
  
_"Does it matter?"_ Shinji growled. _"What the hell did YOU DO before we even got here?"_ He yelled, shouted, roared, _"What was that first shock wave SUPPOSED TO EVEN DO!?"_  
  
A.D.A.M. laughed. **~You'll find out in another few hours...if you live that long.~**  
  
_"Spare us the melodrama then!"_ Asuka growled. _"If we die now, you'll never get to gloat in our faces!"_  
  
 **~Fine, you want to know?~** A.D.A.M. snarled. **~I Disabled reproduction on everything.~** The Eva's didn't show it, but the pilots's eyes all went wide. **~You Lilim, the filthy animals you so love to eat...even the plant-life will wilt and die, unable to reproduce and bear life.... Even if you kill me, you all will _Starve_ in _Stagnation_ soon after!~**  
  
_"You...."_ Shinji just blinked. _"You are one sick little bastard, you know that right!?"_

  
_"Shooosh, Shinji,"_ Milano hummed at him. _"Everything'll get brighter. We'll work around him."_  
  
 **~YOU CANNOT WORK AROUND THIS FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE TO YOUR REALITY!~** A.D.A.M. roared at them, even as the flames began to flicker. **~YOU THINK YOU CAN!? TRY IT WHEN THE VERY FLAMES ON YOUR PRECIOUS SUN WILL WITHER AND DIE!~** He looked up at the sky and then yelled the very same words Rei and Rocket had- unintentionally doubling down on himself. _**~JOOR ZAH FRUL!!~**_  
  
But other than that, nobody realized quite what had happened just yet....  
  
Nobody other than the Time Demon who smirked as he watched a wave of energy shoot up and smash into the sun. Moments later, he felt reality grind its gears, and finally give up the ghost.  
  
The timeline began to fade to black, starting with the sun's brightness lowering by an almost imperceptible amount for all of a few seconds before rumbling ominously through space.  
  
A.D.A.M. started laughing through the flames that continued to burn away at him.  
  
Rei just had Unit-05 pick up the hilt of the Impact Lance, staring at the hilt, then the sparking motor for the laser drill.  
  
Then she laughed.

A.D.A.M. stopped and glared at her. **~Just what is so funny!?~**  
  
 __"OoOoOoOoOh Child,"__ Rei started to sing, although it was improvised and not at all set to the normal melody of that song.  _"Things'll get easier."_  
  
Shinji caught on quickly and matched tones with Rei. __"We'll Walk-under Th'-Rays Ofa-Beau~Ti-ful Sun, OoOo Chi~ld..."__  
  
A.D.A.M. growled. **~So you're going to try THAT again, are you!? Unfortunately for you, your rhyming is off.~**  
 _  
_"Making dreams come true, is so wonderful..."__ Milano started the next verse, and while Shinji and Rei stalled a second at the sudden change in lyrics, Rocket began singing as well right along with her. __"Brave and Bold, here we stand, you won't extinguish our song..."__  
  
Asuka started next, much to everyone's surprise, but they fell in line along with her within moments, __"Does anyone, Ever Tru-uuly Know, where true strength really lies?"__  
  
They all knew what this was, a last ditch effort to put A.D.A.M. off guard with something he couldn't predict. But even so... as they sang, the two mobile pilots walked over towards the immobile Unit-05, holding their Lance fragments that were starting to glow in tune with the song.  
  
And then as one, all six of them, even Groot through humming, sang the next line.

 __"Instead of searching the entire world, just look inside your beating heart...!"__ Unheard to anyone but the pilots through their suddenly resonating A.T. Fields, music built up to a faster pace. __"Oh we're hooked on this feeling, Caught in this daydream,"__ And their singing, despite referencing all those other songs in the past, was entirely set to a new tune, __"Here we'll sing our hearts!"__  
  
Unit-05 forced the hilt of the Impact Lance into the broken drill motor, and then raised their right arm high into the air as Unit-01 on their right raised their left hand with the broken fragment for that side, and Unit-02 on their left did the same with their right arm.  
  
 __"Oh it's magic! Long awaiting! Six souls singing as one, Coo~ome and ge~et your Love!"__  
  
The three pieces of the Impact Lance began to glow brighter as they came closer and closer together....  
  
 __"Listen and tremble as we sing... This is, Our Song, Xros Music Evange~L~ion....!"__  
  
And then then two broken fragments leaped out of the hands holding them and fused back onto their broken base with a resonating **_~THWHUUUUUUUM!~_**  
  
Golden energy spread from Unit-02 and then surrounded all three Evangelions as the two walking ones put their hands on Unit-05's shoulders and then slowly, but surely, the four legs began moving as if by magic, getting back to their feet as that resonating hum from the Impact Lance became nearly audible music to anyone who cared to listen.  
  
Down in the Geofront, everyone stared on with wide open jaws as the Pilots began singing again.

 _ **~"We all are, mighty superstars! Dials turned to full strength, our hearts start to pound!"~**_  
  
 ** _~Why You.._.GRK--~** A.D.A.M. took a step backwards as the blue flames around him suddenly leaped into a mighty golden color echoing the brightening Impact Lance. It hurt a LOT more now, and he was practically rooted to the spot by the pain.  
  
 _ **~"No valleys low, or mountains high, will stop our wonderful song!"~**_ The motor sparked back to life, and began to spin the Impact Lance as its revived metals began to expand outwards and upwards with flashes of colorful, blue, orange, red, and green lines. _**~"We'll bravely be there every time, we'll squash our challengers!"~**_  
  
A.D.A.M. tried to move, only to find out that moving actually hurt MORE than standing still- increasing the golden flames intensity by a thousand fold.  
  
 ** _~"Even if we have bad days, It's something that everyone has had!~"_**  
  
They aimed the glowing, giant, spinning Impact Lance at A.D.A.M., and he swore he could see the pilots faces superimposed over each Eva's helmet.  
  
 _ **~"But then we'll surprise everyone, by jumping back at full speed!"~**_  
  
Giant golden wings spread out from both Unit-01's and 02's backs, even as the giant metal wings from Unit-05 spread as well, and then transformed into matching wings of golden light.

Inside the Geofront, Maya, Mana, and Misato all yelled out, _ **"GO GET HIM!"**_  
  
 _ **~"Right back at ya! Look out world, Here's one big Cherry Bomb!"~**_  
  
The trio of Evangelions suddenly launched forwards at a blinding speed- A.D.A.M. had the presence of mind to throw up A.T. field shields, but much like his previous attempt to move, it hurt to throw them up and keep them active.  
  
 **~"FIRE! _Launch, Evagelions!"~_**  
  
A.D.A.M. worked through the pain and grit his skeletal teeth to keep that A.T. Shield intact even as the Impact Lance powered by three giant Robots plowed into it and began pushing.  
  
 _ **~"Fully Charged! Weapons Drawn!"~**_  
  
A.D.A.M.'s feet suddenly lost traction and he began to slide backwards even as the A.T. shields began to crack and fray under the impact of both the lance, and the corrosive singing.  
  
 _ **~"Never Letting Up, Our song's power shines bright!!"~**_  
  
And then the shields shattered- A.D.A.M.'s backwards momentum began to slow while the Incoming Impact Lance seemed to speed up--  
  
 _ **~"Listen and be amazed at our song! This is our team, Xros Music Evangelion!"~**_  
  
And then the trio of Evangelions were on the other side of A.D.A.M. as if teleported, now sans glowing aura and Impact Lance missing from the drill holster. It was instead wedged firmly inside A.D.A.M.'s chest, right in the hole made by the earlier drill attempt.

 _ **~(WoWoWoWoWoWo)~**_  
  
 **~HAH!~** A.D.A.M.'s contained electricity began zapping every which way. **~YOU WILL STILL DIE!~**  
  
 ** _~"Sh~uuut Up!"~_** Asuka sang at him with a smirk.  
  
And then A.D.A.M.'s barely-held together body gave up, and fell towards the city streets with a thud even as the molecules making him up separated violently in a golden explosion of light.

* * *

Tokyo-3 went silent for a few moments as the dust settled, and then the Demons surrounding the city vanished into their pixelization effect, and the MAGI finally reported to everyone in NERV:  
  
 **_FIRST ANGEL -- CODENAME: "A.D.A.M." -- STATUS: ........ _DEAD._ _**  
  
The Geofront roared with victory, cheering and applause.  
  
"Let's bring our Pilots home!" Ritsuko called out through the victory cadence, and, reluctantly, a few technicians went to work to bring the three Evangelions back into NERV.  
  
But until they got all that done, the three robots that had saved mankind sat there under the shining warmth of the sun in the remains of Tokyo-3....  
  
Misato sighed despite her good mood, "Man, I don't wanna even know what the repair bill is going to be like."

* * *

 

The Three Eva were powered down to 'recovery mode', the little of'used mode of Synchronization that happened when the internal batteries and power sources literally were only giving off 1.1 volts.  
  
Rei had run into this mode more often than not, Shinji never before now, and Asuka only a few times before gaining an S2 organ.  
  
Before, it hadn't had much use for anyone, usually alone. Now, however...?  
  
"Well that is one mighty beautiful sunset," Rocket chuckled as they all watched the sun lowering towards the distant horizon out over the ocean.  
  
"Beautiful, yes," Asuka frowned, "but is anyone else concerned that it's way too early for that right now?"  
  
"Maybe we were fighting for so long we lost track of time?" Milano offered.  
  
"And how long were we fighting for?" Asuka asked.  
  
Nobody really could answer that, but they all agreed that they had really lost track of time after the fight had ended due to exhaustion, really. The recovery teams were still working their way across the damaged city-scape towards the evangelions.  
  
"Doesn't matter right now," Rei shook her head. "We're alive. Whatever A.D.A.M. did with that shout he did towards the sky we'll deal with tomorrow. Or if we're still out of it, then maybe the next day, or the day after that..."

"What if we don't have that long?" Shinji asked. "You guys heard what he said. Reproduction is disabled for everything. How the hell are we supposed to survive?"  
  
Rei and Rocket both laughed.  
  
"How many times was it that we thought we were going to die out there?" Rocket asked.  
  
"Too many times to count," Rei smiled. "We'll be fine. Things will just...work out. Even if we can't do anything right now... who knows. Maybe something big will just fall right into our laps."  
  
"What if it's another us?" Rocket asked. "Remember that time we literally landed in the middle of Armageddon and basically put a stop to it?"  
  
"I am Groot," Groot complained about a lack of context for all of these things Rocket and Rei were remarking on.  
  
"Agreed so much, Grooty," Asuka sighed and leaned back into her seat. "But they've got a point. We've won for now.... let's just... Take a break. Whatever is going to happen....I think it'll wait until tomorrow."  
  
"Tomorrow huh," Shinji looked up at the sky as stars started to peek through the rapidly darkening sky. "Tomorrow's only a day away."  
  
"Don't-" Asuka sat up in her seat suddenly. "Do NOT go singing Annie at us, Shinji! I swear to whatever gods are out there that if you start singing anything from that Musical...!" It was then that Milano started laughing, and soon that laughter spread to everyone else. "Aw forget it," Asuka said as she calmed down to a chuckle. "I just don't want you jinxing us, Shinji."  
  
"That's fine," Shinji smiled. "I understand."  
  
Silence fell between them all for a few minutes before Rei broached the question...  
  
"So.... what's for dinner?"

* * *

And then everything went sideways as the screen cuts to black with a loud **THUD.**  
  
For a few moments, we saw nothing but black before three words faded into view with a faint hiss of static, **[END OF TRANSMISSION.]**  
  
Our camera pulls back away from the knocked sideways computer monitor through a wrecked office building.  
  
Where we now were, or what was going on, nobody could be quite sure of. A Calendar on the wall labled the day's date as August Sixteenth, year twenty-fifteen.  
  
The lights in the building flickered faintly as a cloaked form ran into the office cluster through the door from the hallways.  
  
"This way!" a male voice shouted through the hallways. "The Tower went upstairs!"  
  
"Got it!" Three female and one male voices called out in confirmation, some of them very familiar.  
  
The cloaked form hissed as it ducked underneath a desk. A moment later, a yellow scaled reptile's foot stepped into the room.  
  
"Damn it!" The owner of that first voice, also the owner of that reptile foot, was, in reality, an Agumon wearing red training bracers on his arms. "It's close! I can smell it!"  
  
"Don't worry, Agu," a girl with brown hair came into visual range after him, in her hands was a translucent orange Xros Loader with black trim. "We'll find it. Sylen and Akari are blocking the exits. It can't go far."

Agumon sniffed at the air, "I know that, Kristy, but that doesn't make this any less frustrating...! This Tower's caused this world so much trouble..."  
  
"We just have to hold out until Simon gets the last signal reverser into place," another girl came into sight, older than the last time she had been seen in this narrative. The bandanna around her neck said to all that knew her that she was the one and only Kaiyumi Kudo, even if the Brown and Pink Xros Loader at her hip didn't confirm it anyways. "Then the Tower'll be forced out into the open and we can kill it."

"Grrr... I really hate these Towers," Agumon growled, sniffing at the room once more. "Especially these super prototypes Ryouma whipped up..."  
  
"At least this one isn't a conversion like the Dark Masters," Kaiyumi grimaced as they spread out through the large office room to find the hidden Tower, the cloaked figure that was cowering just out of sight, "or super powered like the ones from Fam's world."  
  
"You never did explain what was up with that girl Ryouma was with," Kristy frowned.  
  
"That's because we never figured it out," Kaiyumi calmly replied as she looked under a desk that had an overturned monitor. "We didn't recover a body after we ran it through with that Vespa. The explosion incinerated everything so--" There was a crackle of static then, and Kaiyumi answered her Wrister. "Yeah?"  
  
_"We've got the last relay set, and we're starting the broadcast,"_ replied a boy's voice.  
  
"Great to hear, Simon," Kaiyumi nodded. "We'll keep our eyes open." And with that, the three of them in that room turned on their Wristers to a certain frequency, and outside the room, the King and Queen of a certain Digital World did the same.  
  
Nigh instantaneously, the Tower yelled out and threw the Desk it was hiding under to the side.  
  
"There's the Algomon Tower!" Agumon pointed at it with a feral grin as flames licked between his teeth. **"PEPPER BREATH!!"**  
  
Kaiyumi stood forwards and threw a hand out, **"TINY TWISTER!"**  
  
From a lot of synchronized training and practice, a burst of fire and a micro-tornado shot out and combined, forming a flaming tornado that grew quickly in size before smashing into the Algomon-shaped Tower, blasting it into the roof before slamming it back down into the floor again.  
  
The Tower grunted with a huff as it got back to its feet, shakily...

And then the King and Queen burst into the room from either exit, both of them with crimson hair. The King- Sylen- with blue eyes- and the Queen- Akari- with golden yellow orbs- both glared at the Algomon Tower as they gathered fire in the palms of their hands.  
  
 **"ROCK DAMASHII!!"**  
  
In harmony, they threw those musical-note shaped Fireballs at the Algomon tower, causing its already singed cloak to ignite on fire, and it roared in an auto-tuned mockery of actual pain.  
  
The world destabilized around them with a flicker of familiar time-distortion and gelatinous cubes of rainbow colors.  
  
"Digi-Quartz Visualization!" Kaiyumi warned into her Wrister as well as to the room, "SIMON!"  
  
A moment later, a crimson armored, humanoid form burst into the room through a window, tucking and rolling before stopping on its feet by flaring out its raven like wings.  
  
This was a rare Digimon evolved from the Cutemon line-- a KinGRavemon-- and its emerald face plate shimmered in determination as it transformed its right hand into a familiar looking drill with a flash of green light. "GIGA DRILL---!"

 **[EXECUTE: BEARTRAP.EXE_ _ _|]** The Monitors all read in sequence at the same moment the Algomon Tower threw off its burning cloak and then its body distorted with a similar effect to the world around it....but then a ring of data surrounded it, followed by many, many more rings of data that quickly formed a cocoon.  
  
"Is it Digivolving!?" Kristy cried out in surprise.  
  
"No! That's a time--!" Agumon's warning came a moment too late, as that cocoon of data exploded outwards and engulfed the entire floor of the building, and when it vanished, a massive spherical shape had been carved out of the building itself, almost as if it had never been there to begin with...  
  
And anyone that had been inside were nowhere to be seen.  
  
For the young Digidestined group standing in the streets below looking up at the gaping hole in the building, one John Conner just stared on with horror. "That....was not what we wanted at all."  
  
The Hackmon at his side just blinked once before saying, "Huh. Do you think we forgot to carry the one somewhere?"  
  
"Either that or we divided by zero," A girl by the name of Cameron scratched at the top of her head in confusion.  
  
Little did those kids know, it was nothing that they did that had caused such a violent displacement of matter through time....and space.

Hurtling through the multiverse like a rocket, guided only by the Time Demon's will and whim, that section of the building broke apart as the Algomon Tower discarded its humanoid guise for the monstrous form known for its many, many eyes.  
  
And then confronting it was a Digimon of similar size.  
  
"ShineGreymon...!" Kristy called out, holding a still glowing Xros Loader in hand, "We've got to stop him before he hits another world!"  
  
"RIGHT!" The Knight like Dragon roared, and threw himself at the Monster-formed Algomon Tower, knocking them faster towards their unknown destination. Right behind them, slower, but none-the-less headed in the same direction, was KinGRavemon, Kaiyumi riding on his shoulders, and OmegaShoutmon, with Akari riding on his back.  
  
The whole of time and space blurred around them at incredible speeds, distorting their view of their destination....

A cluster of white string spiraling endlessly around a glowing sphere of energy that was a continuous Third Impact.

* * *

 

And so a certain Time Demon smirked. "The trap is sprung," he said simply. "The King And Queen move to their inevitable _Checkmate_. Game, Set, and Match."  
  
 **[END OF XROS MUSIC EVANGELION. TO BE CONTINUED IN THE REWRITE OF X0VA-7.]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. That's the end of Xros Music Evangelion. 
> 
> I get that some people don't like heavily meta stories, and I originally did not want this to end up being crossed over with XWAU02 as the Eva verse seen there, especially since I took this story up as a challenge.... but music has been a heavy part of that universe and everything I've done for XWAU02, and I ended up falling into the same gears when working on this story. That hesitation really was to the detriment of the story, IMHO. Once I stopped holding myself back and let myself just write the story I wanted to write, I think things got better, especially since I got more positive reactions on the outright insane things than the more restrained stuff.
> 
> That said, I'd like to thank everyone for reading this story and putting up with my meandering nonsense. Xros Music Evangelion was very much an experiment for me, mainly in posting works in a snip format rather than whole chapters, and getting feedback as I write before uploading whole chapters. While most snips on SV have little gaps between them of dialogue and discussion, what feedback I've gotten I appreciate whole heartedly, and everyone gets my thanks. 
> 
> Usually I'm stuck in an echo chamber even when I ask people for direct feedback so it's very nice and refreshing to have had feedback during the writing process. (I'm still waiting on someone to get back to me on something I asked them for feedback on over TWO WEEKS ago...they said they'd get back to me the next day!!)
> 
> So, yeah...back to the grind of re-writing XWAU02...interspersed with a project that I might actually be getting publishes one day. Some day...far, faaaaarrr off in the future. 
> 
> What else is there to say? Atleast now I'm motivated to push through to the X0VAs. Also. Snow. Still hate it when it heavily comes down. It makes my stomach hurt. XP
> 
> Also, there are no fish in my pond. What so ever.... I don't even have a pond to put any fish in.


End file.
